Meta Loses Senior Asia Voice as Regulatory Heat Intensifies
Simon Milner's exit creates leadership vacuum as Meta faces Vietnam's 12-hour content removal mandates, Australia's youth bans, and fraud crackdowns across APAC.
Meta Platforms announced the retirement of Simon Milner, its most senior public policy executive for Asia-Pacific, effective in the first half of 2025. The departure comes as the tech giant faces escalating regulatory challenges across the region, from Vietnam's aggressive content removal mandates to Australia's groundbreaking youth protection laws.
Leadership Transition During Critical Period
Milner, who has led Meta's Asia-Pacific policy operations from Singapore since 2012, oversees teams across China, India, Japan, and other regional markets. His exit creates a leadership vacuum at a particularly sensitive time as Meta balances expanding AI initiatives with compliance demands across diverse jurisdictions.
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The company reported ad revenue of $46.56 billion in Q2 2025, underscoring the financial importance of maintaining operational stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Milner will remain for several months to facilitate succession planning and prepare his replacement to lead the regional policy team.
Regulatory Challenges Intensify Across Markets
Meta confronts mounting pressure from multiple Asia-Pacific governments implementing stricter platform oversight. Australia implemented a landmark ban prohibiting children under 16 from accessing social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. The legislation has inspired similar proposals in Indonesia and Malaysia, potentially reshaping Meta's youth engagement strategies across the region.
In Taiwan and Japan, authorities have criticized Meta over widespread financial fraud on Facebook. Major Taiwanese banks withdrew advertising from the platform last year due to proliferating fake bank ads, while Japanese lawmakers demanded faster action against celebrity impersonation scams targeting users.
Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications requires cross-border platforms to comply with content removal requests within 12 hours, half the standard 24-hour timeframe. According to the ministry, "Cross-border platforms must remain on duty 24/7 to comply within 12 hours." This aggressive mandate has been linked to pre-arrest content deletions of activists' posts, raising concerns about platform cooperation with government censorship.
Compliance Costs and Operational Complexity
Regional regulatory fragmentation is forcing Meta to navigate increasingly complex compliance requirements. India's amended IT Rules implemented in 2025 require rapid takedowns of "harmful content," potentially affecting encryption and privacy for WhatsApp's 535 million-plus users in the country.
Thailand's Royal Decree mandates platforms appoint local representatives with unlimited liability, increasing compliance costs and legal exposure. Malaysia's Sovereign AI Strategy, announced in October 2025, requires local data residency and excludes foreign cloud providers from government AI projects.
Nepal blocked 26 social media platforms in September 2025 for non-registration, though the blockade was reversed after public protests.
Balancing Investment and Compliance
Despite regulatory headwinds, Meta continues regional investments. The company launched Quest 3S VR headset production in Vietnam, creating 1,000 jobs, and introduced Vietnamese-language Meta AI to localize artificial intelligence capabilities.
Southeast Asia's internet economy is projected to exceed $300 billion in 2025, up from $200 billion-plus in 2023, highlighting the region's continued growth potential despite regulatory complexity.
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