SINGAPORE: Minister of State Sun Xueling on Thursday (Feb 29) called out Meta’s lack of cooperation with the Singapore government when it came to combatting scams.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has “consistently pushed back” against the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) recommendations to put in place safeguards against scams on the social media platform, Ms Sun told parliament.
These recommendations include verifying users against government-issued IDs and offering a secured payment option for Marketplace users.
A total of 9,783 e-commerce scams were reported in Singapore last year, more than double the 4,762 cases the year before, with victims losing a combined S$13.9 million (US$10.3 million). Close to half of the scams were on Facebook, said Ms Sun.
Facebook is the only platform in the E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings (TSR) that has not implemented, or started to implement, recommended safety features.
“As a result, Facebook Marketplace was ranked the lowest in the TSR for the second consecutive year,” she said.
The TSR rates popular e-commerce platforms on their measures to safeguard users against scams. Facebook has a safety rating of one tick, compared with platforms like Amazon, Lazada and Qoo10 which have the highest rating of four ticks.
Platforms like Shopee and Carousell, on the other hand, are working with the Home Affairs Ministry and the police to fight scams, she pointed out.
For example, Shopee introduced verification features in December 2022 where sellers were required to verify their identities against government records. Scams reported on the e-commerce platform fell 71 per cent between 2021 and 2023 as a result, she said.
“I urge Meta to step up, to do right by your users,” Ms Sun said.