Thailand is not pleased that Facebook does not adequately monitor and eliminate the circulation of risky financial schemes on its platform. According to Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy, more than 2,00,000 Thai citizens have been scammed via Facebook, where scammers lure them in with a cryptocurrency system and high-interest auctions, among other scams. other. Authorities in the Asian country are now considering seeking legal intervention to address his concerns. The Thai government is concerned that such scams circulating on Facebook pose a serious threat to the national economy.
Chaiwut Thanakmanusorn, Thailand’s Minister of Digital Economy and Society (DES), believes that Facebook should be restricted in the country now. “The ministry has sent a written request to Meta and Facebook to resolve these issues. DES is in the process of compiling evidence from offenders on the Facebook platform for submission to the court,” an official DES statement said.
Thai authorities say Facebook is exposing its citizens to financially risky content. Cyber thieves lure victims with cryptocurrency investment recommendations, trick them into trading digital currencies, and manipulate them into interacting with malicious websites, all through Facebook.
Authorities say more than 2,00,000 Thai nationals have lost a total of THB 10,000 million (about Rs 2,370 crore) to these online scams. Since cryptocurrency transactions are largely anonymous, many cybercriminals prefer to steal assets in the form of cryptocurrencies. This helps them dodge and evade law enforcement officers trying to find clues to the stolen money.
According to Web3 security firm Beosin, the total losses from hacks, online scams and carpet pulling in Web3 have reached $655.61 million (about Rs 5,420) in the first half of 2023.
Statistics firm Triple-A estimates that more than 6.2 million people, or 9.3% of Thailand’s total population, currently own cryptocurrency.
Therefore, the government wants to ensure that no mainstream social networking platform like Facebook exposes users to such scams. “If Facebook wants to do business in Thailand, it needs to be responsible to Thai society. Last time the Ministry of dialogue with Facebook throughout. However, Facebook did not screen advertisers, harming Thai people,” Chaiwut said.
Other platforms like LinkedIn, Topics, and X have also recently become hot spots for crypto scammers.