The Singapore government has ordered Meta to put in place measures such as facial recognition to curb Facebook impersonation scams in the first such directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA).
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Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has until September 30 to comply.
Apart from implementing enhanced facial recognition measures, it is also required to prioritise the review of end-user reports from Singapore to reduce scam advertisements, accounts, profiles and/or business pages impersonating key government office holders in Singapore.
Meta faces a fine of up to S$1 million (US$776,400) upon conviction if it fails to comply, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a press release on Thursday.
If the offence continues, Meta could face a further fine of up to S$100,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues after conviction.
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The intention to issue the directive was first announced on September 3 at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2025 and it comes amid a surge in government official impersonation scams.
Between June 2024 and June 2025, MHA and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) saw an increase in scammers exploiting Facebook to perpetrate impersonation scams using videos or images of key government office holders in fake advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages.