Thailand seeks to block access to Facebook, citing crypto scams

Thailand is threatening to shut down Meta’s Facebook in the country due to scams.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society posted the alert on Monday, claiming that over 200,000 people had been impacted by online scams. It notes that crypto scams are popular with “cyber crooks.”

Chaiwut Thanakmanusorn, the Digital Economy minister, “insists that he is ready to submit to the court to close Facebook at the end of this month.”

The ministry claims that it took its concerns to Facebook through a letter, asking for the company to “take action to resolve the issue.” However, it’s unclear if Meta or Facebook has responded.

“In the past, the ministry talked to Facebook all the time, but did not screen advertisers, causing damage to Thai people of more than 100,000 million baht, ” Chaiwut said.

The Ministry argues that Facebook is profiting off ads that are perpetuating scams and that the social media company does not properly screen the ads. Roughly 5,000 fraud ads have been blocked, according to the post. 

Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment.

The move against Facebook comes after Thailand took action against crypto staking in July, with Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission announcing the ban on both lending and staking services effective as of Aug. 30.

“It is forbidden to advertise or persuade the general public or do any other act in the manner of supporting the deposit taking & lending service,” the Thai SEC said.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
• 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
• Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
• Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
• The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
• Lightspeed: All things Solana.
• Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.