KUALA LUMPUR: Harmful and emotionally provocative content is likely embedded within the business models of social media platforms because it drives higher engagement and advertising revenue, an analyst said today.
Harris Zainul, research director at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis) Malaysia, said social media companies profit by keeping users online longer, which makes divisive content more commercially attractive.
“We want to see content that excites us, makes us angry or makes us sad. That is the kind of content that gets attention, allowing platforms to serve more advertisements,” he said.
Harris was speaking at a panel discussion titled “Social Media and Technology: The Challenges of Algorithms and Polarisation” at Simposium Harmoni 2026 at Parliament today.
He criticised social media companies for stonewalling independent researchers by withholding data on how their algorithms function.
“When we ask for more detailed data, they refer us back to the transparency report that they wrote themselves.
“If I wrote my own exam questions, answered them myself and marked my own paper, of course I would come out on top,” he said.
Meta’s global head of prevention Nawab Osman, however, pushed back against the characterisation of social media platforms.
“High engagement brings profit, but high negative engagement does not necessarily lead to profit,” Nawab said, adding that advertisers actively avoid platforms associated with hate and violence to protect their brands.
He defended the company’s emergency content restriction protocols, warning that making such measures a permanent default would suppress legitimate news, civil society voices and public safety information.
“It would also restrict the freedom of expression of millions of Malaysians,” he said, noting that Meta instead invests heavily in artificial intelligence and human reviewers to catch harmful content early.
The panel was moderated by University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute director Tricia Yeoh, and also featured Jufitri Joha, a senator, and Monash University lecturer Nazirul Hazim A Khalib.
