Thailand’s government indicated it would seek a court order to ban Facebook in the country unless Meta Platforms makes a plan with the plethora of alleged crypto scams and other fraudulent ads on the platform.
Thailand Vs. Facebook: crypto scams and fraud
Chaiwut Thanakamanus-orn Source: Bangkok Post
On 21 August in Bangkok, Southeast Asia’s second-largest economic hub, Thailand’s Digital Minister, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, stated:
We are asking the court to close Facebook, not allowing it to provide services in Thailand if they let these fake pages scam people. They can’t do business like this.
This reaction followed claims that over 200,000 people in Thailand were taken in by scams and other deceptive schemes advertised on this social media platform. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society commented that some of these scams attracted investments in non-existing companies, posed as the US Securities and Exchange Commission, or cryptocurrency trading brokers.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society maintained it made numerous requests to Meta Platforms to remove advertisements it typed as fraudulent, but the problem continued, which gives the government no alternative but to seek legal remedies.
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Wetang Phuangsup indicated during a Reuters interview that the said ministry is in the process of gathering evidence for its court case in this matter. He said:
If there is a lot of wrongdoing, the court could close down pages and accounts. Or the court could close the entire platform.
Meta Platforms has not offered a response as yet.
