Thailand Threatening Facebook Shutdown Over Scam Ads

Quincy Jon, Tech Times 22 August 2023, 01:08 pm

A top Thai Cabinet official threatens to take severe measures against Facebook, one of the world's most extensive social media networks, for poor ad filtering that exposes users to pricey frauds.

Thailand's Minister of Digital Economy and Society, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, said on Monday that he is willing to bring the case before a criminal court by the end of the month and is calling for the closure of Facebook in the nation, according to AP News.

Facebook Fails to Stop Scams on Its Platform

Minister Thanakamanusorn said that Facebook's ad screening methods fail to stop bogus ads. Despite requests for Facebook's parent company, Meta, to remove fake advertising, the problem still exists even though more than 5,000 have been removed.

The minister said that false adverts and bogus profiles frequently seem like respectable financial and investment experts promising large rewards, Cointelegraph reported. These advertisements trick naive people into falling for frauds that cost them a lot of money.

More than 200,000 people in Thailand have reportedly been victims of online scams. Meta has not replied to the minister's charges.

The immediacy of the issue raises considerations regarding judicial involvement if legal action is taken. The Thai government is presently collecting proof to back up its allegations of dishonest advertising tactics. Ministry spokesperson Wetang Phuangsup said the court may take down particular sites, accounts, or the whole Facebook platform if widespread misbehavior is proven.

"If there is a lot of wrongdoing, the court could close down pages and accounts. Or the court could close the entire platform," the Thailand government official said, as quoted by Reuters.

The ministry advised customers to avoid high-return investments and pressure to invest rapidly. Facebook advertisements with pictures of famous people and those for companies with no verified information were also identified as possible red flags.

The Severity of Thailand's Online Scam Woes

With more than 50 million user accounts in a nation with 71 million population, Facebook's popularity in Thailand cannot be overstated. Despite having a large user base, the social media platform's susceptibility to online fraud is raising worries, especially because recent reports claim that Thai victims of internet scams have lost more than 10 billion baht ($285 million) annually.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society's Deputy Permanent Secretary, Wetang Phuangsup, provided startling figures on the severity of the issue, as per Thai PBS World. A total of 296,063 instances of internet fraud were recorded between March 1 and July 15, 2023, resulting in a theft of 39.1 billion baht ($1.1 billion). Additionally, within the same time frame, criminal gangs operating fraudulent investment schemes succeeded in duping 20,667 people, causing losses of 20.7 billion baht ($590 million).

Stock Exchange of Thailand President Pakorn Peetathawatchai said that investment frauds are widespread, with scammers exploiting impersonation to defraud naive victims.

Thailand's Cyber Crime Investigation Division reported that online scammers had caused 11.5 billion baht ($328 million) in financial damage over the past 14 months by luring job seekers to transfer money, lending, investing, and making phone threats.