S'pore police order Meta to target scams impersonating government office-holders

The police have issued an order to Meta to target scammers impersonating government officeholders on Facebook.

- David Sun Crime Correspondent

On Sept 24, Meta was issued an implementation directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act (Ocha).

The parent company of Facebook is required to implement measures to target scam advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages impersonating key government officeholders on the social media platform.

It must comply with the directive by Sept 30, or risk a fine of up to $1 million. On top of this, in the case of a continuing offence, it can be fined up to $100,000 daily.

This is the first time such an order has been issued by the police to an online platform to tackle scams.

Ocha, which allows the Government to remove criminal content online, came into force in February 2024.