DES threatens to shut down Facebook

The ministry plans to request a court order to block access to Facebook's platform in the country. Recent incidents have involved Facebook receiving money from fraudulent pages that acted as sponsors to deceive and lure people into investing, causing substantial harm to many Thai citizens and damages exceeding 100 billion Baht.

According to DES Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, statistics show that over 70% of investment scams via social media were conducted through Facebook, and around 90% of online product scams were also facilitated through the platform.

Chaiwut said that the ministry is currently compiling evidence against those responsible for wrongdoing on the Facebook platform, with the aim of presenting it to the court to secure a closure order within this month. The ministry requests the court to order the shutdown of Facebook within 7 days. The recent incidents have resulted in more than 200,000 victims incurring damages exceeding 10 billion Baht.

Chaiwut emphasised that if Facebook wishes to conduct business in the country, it must take responsibility for monitoring what appears on its platform. Despite ongoing discussions between the ministry and Facebook, no actions have been taken to screen or identify deceptive pages. This allowed these pages to continue deceiving Thai citizens.

The ministry has collaborated with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Electronic Transactions Development Agency, and the Technology Crime Suppression Division in efforts to address issues related to deceptive advertising and covert investment solicitations using the SEC's name and emblem without authorisation from the SEC.

However, both DES and related agencies emphasise that the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has not offered any such investments, and any information claiming such activities, as well as the unauthorised use of the SEC's name and emblem, is entirely false.