Thailand Prosecutes Facebook, Google And Twitter Over Posts

picture copyrightReuters

picture captionDigital minister Puttipong Punnakanta stated cyber-crime police have been now concerned

Thailand is prosecuting Fb, Google, and Twitter over a failure to take away what it says are unlawful posts.

Officers didn’t say precisely what they contained but additionally introduced they’d take motion towards particular person customers for insulting the monarchy.

Underneath Thailand’s strict “lese-majeste” legal guidelines, doing so can lead to a jail sentence.

That is the primary time that computer-crime legal guidelines have been used to focus on the platforms themselves.

The announcement follows mass protests within the nation demanding political reform.

“We have notified the businesses and despatched them warnings twice, however they have not complied with all of the requests,” digital minister Puttipong Punnakanta informed Reuters information company.

He stated the matter had now been referred to cyber-crime police for prosecution.

At difficulty have been 661 Fb posts, of which the corporate eliminated 225; 69 on Twitter, of which 5 have been eliminated, and 289 YouTube hyperlinks, which have been eliminated on Wednesday after the deadline, according to the Bangkok Post.

Underneath the computer-crimes legislation, the social-media corporations might be fined 200,000 baht (£4,970) for ignoring a court docket order to take down posts – and an additional 5,000 baht daily till it’s eliminated.

In August, Facebook blocked access to a one million-strong Facebook group in Thailand that mentioned the monarchy, after a risk of authorized motion from the Thai authorities.

media caption1000’s have gathered within the Thai capital for Saturday’s protests.

On the time, Fb informed the BBC it was making ready its personal authorized motion in response to stress from authorities there.

The accompanying announcement about motion towards particular person customers follows an anti-government protest final week.

Solely a handful of outstanding accounts are believed to be concerned in that.

The protest in Bangkok involved thousands of people calling for reform of the nation’s political system – together with the function the monarchy performs.

Police estimated about 15,000 folks took half; organisers claimed 50,000 did so.

The requires reform of the monarchy are extremely delicate. Thailand’s prison code permits for prosecution for criticism of the royal household – typically in secret trials, leading to lengthy jail sentences.

Human rights teams allege that the legislation has been used as a manner of limiting free speech and requires reform.

Fb and Twitter declined to touch upon the case, and Google has but to reply.