Thai authority has confirmed on Tuesday, June 14, 2017, that virtually all Facebook pages and YouTube videos has been shut down by the Thai government over royal insults and other “inappropriate” content have also been blocked.
The Secretary-General of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, Takorn Tantasith stated that;
“Web pages with alleged royal insults were among a total of 965 pages deemed illegal, with others containing violence, copyright issues and other inappropriate content.
“Among the 965 pages, 569 of them were on Facebook and 373 on YouTube.
“Although nearly 100 per cent has been blocked, the NBTC has instructed ISPs [internet service providers] to keep monitoring online content.”
Thailand’s strict lese-majesty law bans criticism and insults toward the royal family, with offender facing years of imprisonment, if they are found guilty.
Since assuming the power seat in a May 2014 via coup, the royalist military government has put more effort on ground to prosecute any individual that violates lese-majesty law.
Reports says over 100 people have been detained for alleged lese-majesty offences since the military came into power. Majority were arrested for making comments or sharing posts on Facebook.
Lastweek Friday, a Thai man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for posting something on Facebook, the longest sentence till date for such offence.
In early May, 2017, the Thai internet providers appeal to Facebook to block pages and post deemed in violation of the country’s law. The request was made to the Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s managing director in Thailand.
Facebook has also confirmed that those pages and posts would be unavailable in Thailand based on the junta’s request.
