The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) on Monday (21 Aug) said it plans to ask a court to shut down Meta Platforms’ Facebook in Thailand unless it takes action over scams that have affected more than 200,000 people.
MDES Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn said, “We are asking the court to close Facebook, not allowing it to provide services in Thailand if they let these fake pages scam people.”
In a statement, the ministry said it had made repeated requests for advertisements it had identified as scams to be taken down by Facebook, but the problem persisted and it would seek court intervention.
According to MDES Spokesperson Wetang Phuangsup, officials were currently gathering evidence of wrongdoing by Facebook that would be presented before the court later this month.
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.”
The ministry said scams perpetrated on Facebook included luring users to invest in fake companies, faking government bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, and trading in digital currencies. Minister Chaiwut said, “They can’t do business like this.” (NNT)
