KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysian authorities said on Friday they will take legal action against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms for failing to remove "undesirable" content on the social media platform.

Facebook has recently seen a significant volume of undesirable content relating to race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling and scam advertisements, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Despite repeated requests from MCMC, Meta has failed to take sufficient action to address the issue of undesirable contents on its platform and has not fully cooperated with efforts to remove such contents," the government agency said.

The legal action is necessary to promote "accountability for cybersecurity and enhancing consumer protection," it added.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Edwina Gibbs)