Every Malamute photo I’ve seen shows their tail curling UP.
Looks like you're right about that. The link is to the Google images results for "Malamute".
While Mals are more strongly curled than Siberians, they can flow out their tails abit in action or when not interested. As all dogs the tail moves up when active or alert and down when passive and calm.
This looks perfectly possible to be Mal, but could be mix with other spitz dogs like Siberians, whose tails more readily go saber.
They don’t have their tails up all the time. For photos though “tails up” is de rigueur.