Follow Thailand's footsteps to shut down Facebook, curb scammers - Criminologist

SHAH ALAM - The Malaysian government should follow the footsteps of Thailand, which threatens to shut down Facebook and not allow them to provide services in the country in order to curb fraudulent advertisements or scammers on the social media platform.

Criminology expert Shahul Hamid Abd Rahim said three-quarters of the content on Facebook displayed negative and unbeneficial posts to the society and Malaysians.

“If you ask me, it’s better to shut it down because there are more negative things than positive things. We fear the fraud or scammers will harm the public, the government and may also threaten national security.

“Although the social media platform is based abroad, the government has the right to block it. Our neighbours like Thailand and Singapore can do it, why not Malaysia,” he told Sinar here on Thursday.

On Monday, Thailand reportedly threatened to block access to the Facebook social media application from operating in the country.

The country claimed that Facebook was now a ‘hole’ for online fraud activities, thereby posing a security threat to its users in the country.

Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn asked the court to shut down Facebook and not allow them to provide services in Thailand if they continued to allow fake ad pages to deceive people.

Shahul Hamid added, however, that the Communications and Digital Ministry (KKD) through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) needed to conduct a detailed study on the pros and cons of Facebook.

He said, if the study found that the social media site could cause many problems for the country such as social, family and economic problems, it should be shut down immediately.

“Don't take a long time, just three months is enough to examine the matter and then take action.

"This step needs to be done immediately to ensure that various problems arise as a result of being influenced or stuck with Facebook," he explained.