The Singapore government has ordered Meta Platforms to implement new measures, including facial recognition technology, to combat impersonation scams on Facebook by the end of September.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said Meta could face penalties of up to S$1 million ($776,639) for failing to comply “without reasonable excuse,” with additional fines of up to S$100,000 for each day of continued non-compliance.
The directive, announced Wednesday, follows a police order earlier this month requiring Meta to block fake ads, accounts, and business pages impersonating government officials. Unlike the earlier order, the latest directive sets a firm compliance deadline.
Authorities cited a sharp rise in scams between June 2024 and June 2025 involving doctored videos and images of officials used to mislead Facebook users. “While Meta has taken steps to address the risk of impersonation scams globally, the Home Affairs Ministry and the Singapore Police Force remain concerned by the prevalence of such scams in Singapore,” the ministry said.
The order is the first enforcement action under Singapore’s Online Criminal Harms Act, which took effect in February 2024, underscoring the government’s plan to hold social media platforms accountable for criminal activity online.
Meta has not yet commented on the directive.
