21-8-2023 (BANGKOK) Thailand’s Digital Minister, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, has announced plans to take legal action to shut down Facebook, operated by Meta Platforms, in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy due to the platform’s alleged inaction against scams that have impacted over 200,000 individuals.
“We are asking the court to close Facebook, not allowing it to provide services in Thailand if they let these fake pages scam people,” Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn stated in an interview with Reuters.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society released an official statement, revealing that they had repeatedly requested Facebook to remove advertisements they had identified as scams. However, despite their efforts, the problem persisted, compelling them to seek court intervention.
As of now, Meta has not responded to the request for comment via email.
Wetang Phuangsup, a spokesperson for the Ministry, informed Reuters that officials are currently in the process of gathering evidence of Facebook’s alleged wrongdoing. This evidence will be presented before the court.
“If there is a lot of wrongdoing, the court could close down pages and accounts. Or the court could close the entire platform,” Wetang Phuangsup explained.
The ministry’s statement outlined various scams that have reportedly taken place on Facebook, including schemes enticing users to invest in non-existent companies, impersonation of government bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, and fraudulent trading in digital currencies.
“They can’t do business like this,” Chaiwut remarked firmly.
