Thailand’s interim digital minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn has announced the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES) is collecting evidence of fraudulent advertising on Facebook.
The DES intends to petition the court to block the social media platform in the country by the end of the month.
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The DES cited Facebook’s failure to screen advertisers for fraudulent posts as the cause for the petition. Thanakamanusorn stated over 200,000 Thai individuals had fallen victim to scams on the platform with over 10bn baht (approx. $284m) lost in damages.
In June, Malaysia also announced its plans to pursue legal action against Meta on the basis of fraudulent advertisements. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement that Facebook has been “plagued by” defamation, impersonation, online gambling and scam advertisements.
Meta has reported a rise in ChatGPT-related malware scams in recent months. In May, Meta said it had found over 1,000 malicious links since March which were being advertised as tools to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Last month, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in favour of Germany’s antitrust watchdog in a court case against Meta. The ruling will limit Meta’s ability to share data between its platforms for use in targeted advertising in Germany.
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By GlobalDataThis followed an EU ruling in which regulators found Meta had illegally forced users to accept personalised ads. The social media company was fined €390m ($414m).
