Thailand’s government plans to ask a court to close Meta’s Facebook in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy if it fails to take action over scams that have affected more than 200,000 people, the country’s digital minister said Monday.
Talking to the international media agency Reuters, 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.”
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society said it had repeatedly urged Facebook for advertisements it had identified as scams to be taken down, but no action was taken, and it would seek court intervention now.
Meta did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Officials are currently gathering evidence of wrongdoing by Facebook that would be presented before the court, said ministry spokesperson Wetang Phuangsup.
He added: “If there is a lot of wrongdoing, the court could close down pages and accounts. Or the court could close the entire platform.”
Scams on Facebook included luring users to invest in fake companies, faking government bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and trading in digital currencies, the ministry said.
“They can’t do business like this,” Chaiwut said.
