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Influencers and content creators are increasingly shaping what Malaysians buy, believe, and talk about. Now, the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia is proposing new ‘Principles and Standards for Responsible Influencer Marketing and Brand Collaborations’, allowing for a 45-day public consultation which closes on 30th September 2026. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Mediha Mahmood, CEO of the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum (CMCF) and content creator Esty Richard, who was one of the contributors to the proposed Influencer Guidelines.
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00:10Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:14what we want you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day. Influencers
00:19and content creators are increasingly shaping what Malaysians buy, what we believe, what we
00:25talk about even. And now the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia is
00:30proposing new principles and standards for responsible influencer marketing and brand
00:36collaborations. This is a 45-day public consultation that's currently open and closes at the end of the
00:42month, September 30th. And joining me now on the show to discuss how to build greater accountability
00:49within the creator economy. I have with me Madiha Mahmood, the CEO of Content Forum Malaysia,
00:54CMCF, as well as a content creator, SC Richard, who is one of the contributors to the proposed
01:02influencer guidelines. Welcome to the show, both of you. It's good of you to join me. Madiha,
01:07can we begin with you? So I want to start with the bigger picture here. Influencers, content creators,
01:13they've been part of the digital landscape for quite some time now. In fact, we've spoken about
01:17about having guidelines to kind of govern the, or to guide the creator economy before this. But what
01:24has happened since? So talk to me about what has changed so that the content forum says, well,
01:31this is the right time to put out some creator guidelines. Right. I think since we've last spoken,
01:38influencers, or sometimes they're called key opinion leaders or creators, whatever that may be,
01:42they've got such a great, and for the lack of a better word, influence in our lives. So it's no
01:47longer just about them pushing products or talking about their lifestyle or doing dances in TikTok.
01:53They influence not only what we purchase, they influence what we believe, and they influence
01:58basically everything else out there. And we're getting data that shows younger people are also
02:04getting their news from influences and everything else. In fact, if you want to look for something to eat,
02:09where you go on vacation, more often than not, you look for your favorite food influencer and see
02:14what they say about the situation, right? So the influence that influencers have on society and
02:19community is huge. And it's not, it's not a bad thing. It's a great thing because what we want is
02:24to
02:24have the influencer economy, the influencer community be just as good as advertising, because that's
02:30essentially what they are doing when they have brand collaborations. The only gap that we saw is that a
02:36lot of influencers may not necessarily know what the advertising guidelines are, what the boundaries
02:41are about the things and the products and services that they are actually marketing to their followers.
02:46And the whole intention behind these influencer guidelines and brand collaboration is to provide
02:50them that guidance. Now, I don't want to use the word govern. We're not here to govern influencers.
02:54We're here to ensure that they are able to do what they do best, but guided between the boundaries
02:59that won't harm them or the followers that follow them. Okay. Maybe just draw the parameters first.
03:04What exactly counts as a commercial relationship? Because what I found very interesting was the
03:09proposed guidelines actually goes beyond just kind of the monetary, which is brilliant. So talk to me
03:14about those parameters, everything from, I guess, you know, the free products to hospitality, the trips and
03:20all of that. Absolutely. I think when we first sat down to discuss this with our working group, I think
03:24the
03:25first thing that we did was to talk about what is an influencer and what is the brand collaboration.
03:30And more often than not, the simplistic way of looking at it is if you pay an influencer to say
03:34something and that's it, it's all monetary. But we have to admit that it's not just the monetary value
03:39that they do get. They get the free trips, they sometimes get free products, things like that. Now,
03:45we're not saying that they shouldn't, it's absolutely fine. The only point that we want to put across is
03:49there needs to be transparency, there needs to be disclosure. So yes, you may be able to go on a
03:54three-day,
03:54two-night trip to somewhere, fantastic, beautiful, you've made such great content about it. But maybe
03:59somebody sponsored you to go there. But they don't dictate what you say. They don't tell you, they don't
04:04tell you what to review. They don't give you a script. They just say, here's your trip, go have fun,
04:08make content. All you have to do is disclose us. That's exactly what happened. This is, this is a trip
04:12that I'm taking, courtesy of so-and-so, the brand, and then just do your content as usual. The only
04:18thing we
04:18want is to make sure that your followers are interacting with the content that you're putting out there,
04:22knowing fully well what kind of content that is. So it goes from payment to freebies, anything at all.
04:28Oh, so you have to state what you received from it. Not necessarily. Oh, you don't have to.
04:32So it ranges. For example, if you're paid, if it's a paid post. In fact, the social media platforms
04:39already have you. You can toggle up ad and paid promo. So that one's very, very clear cut. But let's
04:44say you get something, let's say a product for you to review and they give you a script. That is
04:48also
04:48considered a paid thing. So you treat it just like you would treat another ad. But if it's something
04:53that's sort of gray, it's just something, you know, you've got, you've got product to review,
04:57but they don't tell you what to do with it. It can just be you mentioning to your followers that
05:01this
05:01is something that was given to me by brand X. And here's my review of it. And just go ahead
05:05and review.
05:06As you, let's bring you into this conversation. As a content creator in real life,
05:10are those, those lines clear enough in the real world? I think the lines are clear,
05:17especially if you have, when the creator has perhaps overlay text or supers on their video,
05:24that clearly states that it's an ad for that product, you know, but sometimes it could be a
05:31personal review, you know, without any supers, without any overlay text. And some brands prefer this method
05:39because it shows more relative, it's more relatable, I would say. That's the gray area.
05:48Yes. Because it's not disclosed. However, I think a lot of the same line,
05:54that Midi had just mentioned, it needs to be disclosed, at least in a hashtag or something,
06:00you know, if it's a paid collaboration, or it's a PR exchange or gift exchange or something like this.
06:09Well, talk to me about the current scenario. So let's say, you know, in the guidelines are coming
06:13to help maybe guide contact readers within this economy. But what's happening currently? What are you
06:18seeing your peers and how brands approach other influencers and yourself? Right now, it's quite
06:26interesting and it's quite transparent, fortunate enough, you know, with the hashtags, definitely.
06:32And I was just speaking to Mediha earlier, that certain platforms now need you to disclose,
06:38there's an actual toggle button that you need to disclose, the AI captures this when you post your
06:44content. So that's something smart now that's happening nowadays. Yeah, but then again, the gray area.
06:53Okay, do you find that there are some influencers who do not disclose this? Is this, is this purely
07:00kind of an ethical imperative that you, you know, if you feel like you need to disclose,
07:06you disclose and then some influencers choose not to do so? Yes, because also it plays into that
07:13consumer psychology, I believe, because once your audience knows that, you know, oh, okay, this is
07:19actually coming from the influencer themselves, it's not paid, you know, then I trust this person.
07:24But when it's disclosed, pay that again, you know, when it's like, okay, this is a paid thing. Hmm,
07:31she's being paid to say this. So some areas, some marketing strategies from different various brands
07:38would sometimes ask the influencer not to disclose anything to maintain the, to be relatable, right?
07:48Yes, because there is an element of suspicion whenever there is an ad or paid partnership or promo.
07:56So talk to me about that, Madiha, whether this, what does disclosure actually solve?
08:04Right. It solves the followers or the potential consumers predicament of not knowing that they're
08:11interacting with an ad. And I like what you were saying just now about the whole point of trust.
08:17And it's not necessarily the fact that they would want to show relatability. It's also an illusion of
08:23authenticity, I believe. That's it. Because right, the moment you tell a creator, okay,
08:27this is a product I want you to review. This is a script that I want you to follow, but
08:30don't
08:30mention that I told you about it. What is that actually doing? It's a bit deceptive marketing.
08:35So the only thing that we want is to, again, I'm repeating myself, the only thing that we want is
08:39for
08:39people who may potentially make a purchase over that product understand that there is a relationship
08:45between that brand and the creator that they're following. That's very simple. And I think that's
08:49the whole point of these guidelines. We're not just looking at creators. We're also looking at the
08:53brands. We're also looking at the advertisers to understand that this is a simple, disclosure is the
08:59simplest as the baseline authenticity or disclosure that we want to see. I think you were also mentioning
09:04just now that there are some platforms who already use their internal AI detection to see if there's a
09:10brand on your post and then they'll, what do they do? They just, they don't, you were mentioning,
09:14maybe you can share as well. They will pause the video from it going out to public. Yes.
09:20Yeah, it says undisclosed. Yeah. So therefore to open the gate, you need to go into your settings
09:27to toggle this, the disclose, uh, ad, you know, and then it removes the gate, the barrier. So it gets
09:35thrown in public again. Do you find, so I think that a lot of people, um, people consume media on,
09:41online now, I think our understanding of the way content creators have to make a living.
09:48Yes. This is a livelihood that they need brand collaborations. Do you find that you create more
09:55honesty and transparency if you actually disclose which are paid partnerships and which are your
10:01authentic, your own personal reviews? Absolutely. Do you find that your followers engage with that?
10:05Absolutely. They trust me more and they trust other creators more. Um, basically let's say like a
10:11product can never be a 10 out of 10, you know, perhaps there are some certain things that can be
10:17improved and the audience really appreciate that, you know, but sometimes when, uh, a brand pays you to
10:24say every good thing, you know, about, about the product, it actually, you lose trust. You lose trust with
10:30your audience. And it's trust that you've built over years through your following as well. Madea,
10:37if disclosure is what you are trying to push for, where does the accountability lie? So let's talk
10:43about where it ultimately lands. If the brand is the one doing the pushing and saying, here's the script,
10:48follow it exactly. I want the 10 out of 10 review. Um, who, who ultimately has to be accountable for
10:55that? Is it the brand? Is it the content creators, the PR company who gave the brief? Where do you
10:59stand?
10:59So in our discussions with the members of a working group and also looking at what is
11:04already being done in other jurisdictions, like in Canada and in India, in Netherlands,
11:08it has to be a shared responsibility across the entire chain. We can't put the entire responsibility
11:13on the creator at the end of the chain. We also have to look at what was given to them,
11:18you know, maybe their brief, et cetera. Uh, it's, this is also, the guidelines is also a way to make
11:23sure
11:23that each party understands their role. So let's say a creator is being approached by a brand and they
11:28know they should be disclosing, but the brand is telling them not to, they can do, they can push
11:31back and say, this is the standard that's already been set. I can't do this. You know, you know,
11:35more creators who are, who are responsible may not want to work with you if you're going to this
11:40deceptive ways. So it's a, it's a, when it comes to responsibility, it really looks at that share
11:45of responsibility. Each of those parties have. Yeah. Okay. And can content creators push back in your
11:51experience to say to brands? Absolutely. Because I'm a brand myself. That's right. Very nice. Yes.
11:57I'm a brand myself. So, uh, there are some certain, uh, times when a brand tells me, okay, you need
12:04to,
12:04to get to like these points, you know, but ultimately these points sometimes do not relate to myself.
12:11So I think the product is great, but there are certain areas that are, can be improved. So I tell
12:16them,
12:17perhaps I can't say this. So that's that, you know, one of the things that's quite interesting
12:22about the guidelines was the fact that it will require or encourage, uh, content creators and
12:28influencers to do their own due diligence, right? Which is also the, as you say, but you had the role
12:34of everyone throughout the chain. Is that a realistic expectation for a content creator? Because I'm
12:39thinking, what does, um, you know, kind of reasonable due diligence looks like for one person or one
12:45person team or, you know, very, very small team. Is it possible to do due diligence as a content
12:50creator? Yeah, absolutely. The resources are out there, you know, you can just simply, yeah,
12:56it's as easy as Googling it, you know, finding the registration numbers for beauty products. If they
13:02are listed, you know, if they have a verified list under KKM or something like this, you know,
13:07so, um, absolutely. The, the creator has to do this because if they want to, uh, be of a certain
13:15standard in, in their brand, you know, they need to do this. So they can't say, I didn't know. I
13:21don't
13:21know. I, I, I appreciated that part because I was thinking, oh, okay, this is a, you know,
13:26content creators don't have legal teams, compliance, but they should be able to do almost kind of basic
13:32due diligence, right? Yeah. It's a very important part of it. Um, how do you view the different
13:38industries? So I find, I noticed that it's different for say health is different. You
13:43mentioned, um, cosmetics and beauty products. There is, um, a difference for investment and finance.
13:49Yeah. So is it the principle of, um, the greater the potential harm, the stricter,
13:56the higher the standard on the influencer? Absolutely. I mean, if you think about it, uh,
14:00and this is, this is an example that I can use in China, they've got this rule that if you're
14:04supposed, if you're an influencer who wants to talk about finance or health, you actually have
14:08to be certified to be talking about that. So we asked, um, we asked the working group,
14:12is this something that we want to go to, to that extent? And they say, not yet. So they feel,
14:17and I do agree that it's absolutely possible for us to trust our creators, uh, to understand that
14:22if you're going to talk about some high risk sectors like legal or finance or health,
14:27then you should either be an expert to talk about that. But if you're not,
14:31then you must make sure that you don't portray yourself as an expert to your followers.
14:35So if you're a first year law student, you're not a lawyer yet. So when you give advice to your
14:39followers, don't give advice as if you are Kapal Singh level, you know? So make sure that they know,
14:45they understand that you are speaking as a person with one year of law student experience.
14:49So the whole point of this is that nobody then takes your advice and does something very important
14:55or make really important decisions about their legal situation based on your advice. So it's high
15:01risk, like to answer your question, high risk sectors do require a higher risk of responsibility.
15:06Okay. What about you, Estee? What do you consider your parameters of what you can and cannot talk
15:12about are comfortable to talk about given that there seems to be, um, you know, it's up to the
15:18creator to decide what they want, but where do you kind of think about what your areas of expertise
15:23are, where the boundaries of that lay? Anything that I'm unsure of, I would always disclose that I'm
15:29learning. I'm learning, uh, that I make it very apparent from the beginning of the video,
15:35because in no way I'm an expert in this field or certain things that I talk about. So I think,
15:41yeah, that's very important for a creator to have that integrity, you know, to say those things,
15:47especially in the beginning of the video, not the end. Yeah, not the end. Most people don't say to
15:53that. But this is, this is a very grey area with news and politics. Everyone has an opinion about news
15:58and politics. Very few people are trained or are credibly certified within this area. So how do you
16:08think through influencers who produce news-like content, Fadiha?
16:13That was one of the things that we discussed quite deeply about and we're also hopefully working with
16:18the Media Council to also discuss what the parameters should be. But the guidelines essentially says that if
16:23you, uh, position yourself as an influencer who talks about news and current events and current issues,
16:29you also have to be very careful about how you, you, uh, produce those content or talk about some
16:36of the topics. For example, if you're a journalist and you're a journalist, you know exactly what the
16:39ethical boundaries are when you talk about children or when you talk about suicide, when you talk about
16:44all these other issues. We expect the same kind of standards from the influencers who are doing the
16:49same thing. Fact checking, make sure there's no misinformation and we get it. Sometimes you may be,
16:53you know, you're talking about something that you later discover to be false. So we expect the same
16:58kind of standards that we expect from the newsroom, correct that fallacy as soon as you can and on the
17:02platform that you, you mentioned it. So essentially we're bridging the gap between journalists and
17:07citizen journalists and hopefully we have them at the same standard. Okay. Well, we've had, um, the fourth
17:13media on the show recently and the fourth did a brilliant expose looking at political influence, um,
17:21political finance or political, um, influence within the kind of content created economy,
17:29be paying for political opinions to be made, um, quote unquote viral. Talk to me about that. Where
17:36does CMCF see that? Where does the content forum view that? And what does the, what did the guidelines
17:41say about an influencer who has either political connection or received political support financially
17:49and then produces sponsored political content, not even sponsored political content might say, um,
17:56racialized or divisive content that serves a political agenda. That's right. So these,
18:02this is one of the more important parts of the guidelines that I think was not replicated in
18:07any or not, not that I've seen any of the examples that we've seen from other jurisdictions.
18:12For other countries that you were looking at? Oh wow. I have to double check though. But for us,
18:16we specify a provision specifically on, um, such influences, influences with political collaborations,
18:23etc. They are also expected to comply with the same type of disclosure. Now, when we were discussing
18:30this a lot, I think a lot of us were going, they're not going to disclose, but that's exactly the
18:35standard
18:35that we want it to be there. If you are being funded by a political party, no matter which side
18:41of,
18:41of the house it is, you should be disclosing that you are. Uh, and if you are talking about, and
18:48going back to the topic of, you know, stoking racial or religious hatred, that is a completely
18:53different provision as well in the influencer guidelines. That's something that very, very
18:56important. It's also reflected from the content code that we have. You just cannot. Any content that
19:01incites hate or harm against any group, whether it by race or religion, it is considered hate
19:07speech and you just can't do it whether or not you are a political influencer or not.
19:11So that goes across the board. But yes, to answer your question, we do expect those
19:15who are posting from a political point of view to disclose that they are from that party.
19:19Can I ask you what you thought about that expose, the bad influence?
19:22Oh, I thought it was amazing. I think, I think the fourth is doing fantastic work.
19:26They're also working with their impact influences as well. So that's excellent.
19:31And I think, you know, I can't go, I can't deep dive into that report.
19:33Did it surprise you that this is happening within the industry?
19:37The extent of it, yes. I was surprised by the extent, but we have seen allegations of this
19:42before and I think they've done a pretty good job in substantiating those allegations.
19:46Okay. Estee, did you, did you, were you aware of the kind of political influence within
19:51the content creation space? Yes, yes. First and foremost, I'm part of the fourth as well.
19:57Oh, brilliant. It's good to have you on there. So I'm very happy that we have a community with,
20:02you know, ethical influences out there. And yes, I have had experience myself with this,
20:08especially in my own hometown, you know, so it's, it's out there. It's out there.
20:14They pay well, but at the same time, yeah, being, you know, with a content creator who has high morals,
20:25not only myself, there are plenty out there, but yeah, it's just, we, we need to, we need to choose.
20:32Yeah. Make those decisions, right? Okay. Yes, yes. Well, it's, uh, I'm glad that there are guidelines
20:38now to really kind of spell this out, but do you think we should take it one step further
20:42and make it legislation? Medea? Um, that's the thing. I think, you know, legislation still exists
20:50for certain aspects of whatever is the influencers are working on. So whether it be health claims,
20:56et cetera, law still is there. But for influencers, I personally don't think there should be specific
21:02legislation on influencers. Number one, in the influencer economy or the influencer ecosystem
21:07changes very fast. It's very fluid. Yeah. Uh, so I think self-regulation on industry code works a lot
21:13better. Uh, secondly, I also feel that the audience is very discerning. Now our audience,
21:19especially the netizens out there, they're very quick to see if you are, if you're hiding something
21:24or if you're doing something not above board and they call you out for it. So we feel that trust
21:29is
21:29a really huge value and commodity for influencers and creators. And I think with this as a guideline for
21:35them, they have a much easier way of earning that trust and sustaining that trust. Um, a lot of times
21:41people tell you, you know, it's self-regulation. It's voluntary. Yes, it is. But not everything
21:46needs to have teeth in order for it to be complied with. Right. But you make it culture first, right?
21:51Yes, that's right. We kind of be vigilant around each other. I think you're right. I think consumers
21:57are far more discerning today. Absolutely. I mean, look at the advertising industry, right? There is no law
22:02that says you cannot exploit women to sell cars anymore. Yeah. But that used to be the thing 40,
22:0850 years ago. They used women to sell cars, but they don't do that anymore. There was
22:11no law that said you can't do that. But the industry regulated itself. Okay. I would be remiss
22:16if I didn't bring up something that I'm quite passionate about, which is kid fluences. Yes.
22:20So let's talk a little bit about that. What does the guideline say about kind of protection for
22:26children or content involving children? Right. I think the one thing that we all recognize is that
22:31when we talk about kid fluences, it's number one, influencers who target kids or have children following
22:37them. And number two, there are also kids who are being treated as influencers. And this can either
22:42be their own brand as a child, but it can also be those family vlogs and family influencers who use
22:48children as part of their content and also commercially get some pay out of it. So we want to make
22:55sure that
22:56we're not, we're not shutting the door on this. I mean, it's, it's absolutely fine. Just like how
23:00we have children as talents, how we have children as models and it adds, but the welfare of the child
23:06is definitely number one. So in the, in the guidelines, we've already specified the kind of content
23:10that we should not be used to target children, especially since they would not have the experience
23:15or don't know how to know that they are being advertised to. And number two, we also lay down the,
23:20lay down the rules of what you should do if you're using children as content in your influencer activities.
23:26Do you think we have become so used to seeing, not just media consumers, but not the audience,
23:33but also content creators. Are we just used to seeing children's lives as content? Have we come
23:37to that point already in time? Yes. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. Okay. So in the few minutes that we have
23:45left, I wouldn't like to ask you. So we have some time still before the, before the public consultation
23:51closes. Yes. I think this is brilliant because all of us, I don't know about you, but I'm chronically
23:56online. So all of us are in some shape or form. Yeah. This affects us. What would you like to
24:03see in terms
24:04of public participation in this consultation, but also just later when the guidelines come out and us
24:11holding each other accountable for the content that we see online, Medhi Hai. All right. Number one,
24:16I really hope we get a lot of feedback from the public consultation, from parents, from creators,
24:21from advertisers, everyone. We welcome all opinions and more importantly, we welcome the lived experience.
24:26Because we want to make sure that these guidelines aren't just words on a paper.
24:29We want to make sure that influencers are actually able to use it and it's of value to them.
24:33To answer your second question, how we want to see above and beyond these guidelines is once these guidelines are
24:37out,
24:38we will be doing everything we can to help creators to or influencers to understand these. We're going
24:43to be launching a trusted creator initiative as well. So creators will be able to come to us,
24:48we can train them, we can certify them, and then they will be prioritized by our members at the content
24:53forum, which includes broadcasters and brands, etc. I like the idea of certifying content creators that
24:59you know who to trust. Estee, you have the final word. For creators out there, I think it's apt for
25:09for me to speak on the creator point of view. I think all creators must remember that we are bigger
25:16than our accounts. Because we have a responsibility out there. We have built our account from scratch,
25:24from zero. And we have probably built it to, I don't know, tens of thousands, you know. So ultimately,
25:31we do have that responsibility to our audience to tell them the truth, to have integrity, to have high
25:38morals, and produce good content, good ethical content. So to creators out there, yes, I think
25:49this is our future of our content creation in Malaysia. We are bigger than our accounts,
25:55and we must be responsible for it. Both of you, thank you so much for coming on and talking about
25:59this important topic. I appreciate your time. Thanks. That's all the time we have for you on this
26:03episode of Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching.
26:08Thank you, and good night.