After receiving requests from the government of Thailand, Facebook has agreed today (May 09, 2017) to block/restrict any access to local content on its website that violates laws in the kingdom of Thailand.
The decision came in response to the Thai Internet Service Provider Association (Tispa) after several official e-mails were sent to Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
“When governments believe that something on the Internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content. When we receive such a request, it is scrutinised to determine if the specified content does indeed violate local laws,” the spokesperson said.
“If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted.”, Facebook spokesperson said.
Following this agreement, some contents, including posts by fugitive Somsak Jeamteerasakul we removed. Users who tried to view a video posted by Jeamteerasakul today were prompted by this message:
Local access to content of two more prominent critics, Pavin Chachavalpongpun and journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall was also restricted.
Moreover, due to Facebook’s geo-restrictions, netizens in Thailand were unable to view a viral video of their 64-year old king Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkunin in a mall in Germany as he walks with his mistress in a crop top that shows his multiple tattoos. The video was blocked as it was deemed insulting to the monarchy by the government as much as it violated the country’s lèse-majesté laws that prohibit any Thai citizen from discussing the king’s life. Tispa president Morragot Kulatumyotin confirmed that all links on Facebook that break Section 112 of the Criminal Code “lèse-majesté” have been blocked.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), was happy with Facebook’s cooperations and said:
” The response from Facebook was a good sign of future cooperation between local ISPs and the US internet giant“.
Despite such sever restrictions, there are over 600 pages on Facebook that can still be accessible despite the local ISP’s attempts to block them as they are encrypted.
