Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has announced its intention to take legal action against Meta Platforms' Facebook in response to a growing number of scams that have targeted more than 200,000 individuals in the country.
The minister responsible for digital affairs, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, revealed on August 21 that unless Facebook takes concrete action to address these fraudulent activities, the government will seek a court order to shut down the social media giant's operations in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
"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 voiced.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society stated in an official release that it has repeatedly requested Facebook to remove advertisements identified as scams. Despite these efforts, the issue has persisted, prompting the ministry to escalate the matter to court intervention.
As of now, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has not yet responded to inquiries for comment.
According to a spokesperson from the ministry, Wetang Phuangsup, officials are currently compiling evidence of Facebook's alleged wrongdoing to 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," the spokesperson explained.
The ministry has outlined a range of scams that have reportedly proliferated on Facebook's platform, including deceptive investment schemes involving fake companies, impersonation of government bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, and fraudulent trading in digital currencies.
"They can't do business like this," Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn emphasized, underlining the government's determination to hold Facebook accountable for the alleged scams.
Thailand's move to potentially shut down Facebook's operations within its borders sends a clear message to social media companies that they are expected to actively police and prevent fraudulent activities on their platforms. The outcome of this legal action could have broader implications for how tech giants manage and respond to similar issues in the future.
Follow Daryo's official Instagram and Threads pages to keep up to date on world news.
Comments (0)