The Singapore government has given Meta until September 30 to crack down on the surge of scams on Facebook that impersonate government officials or risk heavy financial penalties.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), police issued a directive requiring Meta to remove or block scam advertisements, accounts, profiles, and business pages impersonating key government figures.
Failure to comply could see Meta fined up to S$1 million (US$776,000), with an additional S$100,000 daily fine if the violations persist after conviction.
The ministry highlighted a sharp increase in impersonation scams between June 2024 and June 2025, with Facebook cited as the main platform used by fraudsters.
Authorities said that although Meta has introduced global anti-scam measures, such as enhanced detection systems, scammers in Singapore continue to exploit its platform.
This is the first time Singapore has invoked its Online Criminal Harms Act, passed in 2023, to order a social media company to directly tackle scams.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming revealed that in the first half of 2025, cases of scammers posing as government officials surged by 200%, reaching more than 1,760 reported cases.
Losses rose nearly 90%, amounting to S$126 million in just six months.
In one notable case, criminals used deepfakes of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to promote fake cryptocurrency schemes.
Meta has yet to respond to the directive, though the company said earlier this month that it does not allow ads that misuse public figures to deceive users.
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