SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The Singapore government said on Thursday it has given Meta Platforms until the end of this month to introduce measures including facial recognition to help curb impersonation scams on Facebook.
Meta faces a fine of up to S$1 million ($776,639) if it fails to comply “without reasonable excuse”, the ministry of home affairs said in a statement, adding failure to do so would result in fines of up to S$100,000 for each day after the deadline.
The ministry said the directive was issued to Meta on Wednesday. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, Singapore’s police ordered Meta to implement anti-scam measures against advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages impersonating key government office holders on its Facebook platform. That order did not come with a deadline.
The ministry said it saw an increase in instances of scammers exploiting Facebook for impersonation scams between June 2024 and June this year, using videos or images of government office holders in fake advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages.
“While Meta has taken steps to address the risk of impersonation scams globally, including in Singapore, the home affairs ministry and the Singapore police force remain concerned by the prevalence of such scams in Singapore,” said the ministry.
It was the first such order issued under the nation’s new Online Criminal Harms Act, which came into force in February 2024.
($1 = 1.2876 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by David Stanway, Martin Petty)
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