Facebook faces possible Thai legal action over alleged advertising scams

The ministry said it 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. Meta did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Thailand's digital ministry said on Monday it planned to pursue domestic legal action against Meta Platforms' Facebook over what it said was a failure to tackle scams that had affected more than 200,000 people. The ministry said it 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.

Meta did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Ministry of Digital Economy and Society spokesperson Wetang Phuangsup told Reuters officials were currently gathering evidence of wrongdoing by Facebook that would be presented before court.

"If there is a lot of wrongdoing, the court could close down pages and accounts. Or the court could close the entire platform," he said. 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.

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