No Plans to Shut Down Facebook in Thailand, Says New Digital Minister

Thailand –

The New Minister of Digital Economy and Society has suspended any previous plan to shutdown Facebook in Thailand.

Our previous story:

In a late afternoon press conference on August 21st, 2023, former Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiwat Thanakamanusorn stated that his ministry is planning to seek a court order to shut down Facebook in Thailand for allegedly failing to take action on numerous scams, frauds, and fake ads created by users. There have been over 200,000 victims of fraud on Facebook from various ads, fake marketplace scams, and other fraud. This totalled over ten billion baht in financial damages to users affected.

Now for the update:

The New Minister of the Digital Economy and Society Mr. Prasert Chantararuangthong told TPN media this week. “Many Thai people are benefitting from Facebook more than online scammers. There are more than 45 million Facebook users in Thailand. Many run small businesses and use Facebook live to market their products and services. It is the primary communication tool for many businesses as well.”

“Therefore, any plan to shutdown Facebook in Thailand is very sensitive. We need to be very careful about how we go about to solve online scams and problems. Closing Facebook is not the real solution to get rid of these online scammers. We will discuss the problem further with Facebook executives from Singapore soon for better solutions.” Prasert concluded.

This article originally appeared on our sister website TPN National.