Thailand has no immediate plan to suspend Facebook, regulator says

[webfact]

Thailand has no immediate plan to suspend Facebook, regulator says

By Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO: The Facebook logo is displayed on the company's website in an illustration photo taken in Bordeaux, France on February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has no immediate plan to block access to Facebook, the telecoms regulator said on Tuesday, as it expects the social media giant to comply with court orders for the removal of content deemed to threaten national security.

 

In a move to censor criticism in the junta-run country, the telecoms regulator had set Facebook a Tuesday deadline to take down 131 web addresses with content it saw as threatening security or violating strict lese majeste laws.

 

Last week's threat prompted a flurry of concern in the Southeast Asian country - one of Asia's most active on Facebook - that the site would be blocked.

 

However, there would be no immediate measures to block Facebook, Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of Thailand's telecoms commission, told reporters, adding that bureaucracy had held up the process of removing the 131 impugned content items.

 

"We have the necessary documents from the court to block 34 URLs now," Takorn said, following a visit to the head office of a grouping of internet providers in Thailand to check if Facebook had complied with the authorities' removal request.

 

"Facebook has cooperated well in terms of taking steps to block the URLs that we asked them to in the past," he added.

 

"If they cooperate, then there will be 97 URLs left which we have asked the court to issue warrants to block."

 

Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter.

 

The head of the service providers' association, which groups 19 landline and mobile ISPs and international gateway operators covering 90 per cent of Thailand, also told reporters there was no plan to block access yet.

 

"We haven't discussed that action to shut down Facebook," said Morakot Kulthamyothin, president of the Thai Internet Service Provider Association (TISPA).

 

All 131 sites were still accessible after the deadline expired on Tuesday, the provider added.

 

Since the military took power in a coup in 2014, Thailand's government has ramped up online censorship, particularly against material perceived to insult the monarchy.

 

Last month, Thailand also banned citizens from any contact online with three vocal critics of the monarchy.

 

The junta's latest attempt to block content would not achieve much, said Pavin Chachavalpongpun of Kyoto University, one of the three critics.

 

"The government will achieve little from the current ban," Pavin told Reuters.

 

"If Facebook complies, it will be condemned by the international community. If Facebook ignores the request, then I guess the government will prove to the public that it is serious about this - expect more arrests of those who follow me."

 

Facebook has said its general guideline on receiving government requests to remove content is to determine whether the material violates local laws before restricting access.

 

In 2016, Facebook blocked 50 pieces of content found to have violated the lese majeste law, following government requests.

 

Since taking power, the military government has made increasing use of the royal insult law, which can carry a penalty of up to 15 years for each offence, against critics.

 

Days after the May 2014 coup, the ministry of information and communications technology blocked access to Facebook temporarily, saying the military had ordered suspension of content critical of its actions.

 

The junta denied ordering the step.

 

(Additional reporting and writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-16

[baboon]

Looks like they have bottled it. Good.

[JoePai]

Too many of their brats use it and they don't want all the moaning when they get home

 

[kotsak]

[Machiavelli]

It's a blink. 

[bkkcanuck8]

Crap!

 

Wusses! All of them...

 

I was looking for some forced time away from facebook....

[DaveBKK]

It's not a blink at all. FB has already blocked plenty of pages for Thailand in the past. They simply require a court order to do so. With all the recent holidays and such and general admin slackness, Thai Gov hasn't gotten the court orders prepared yet.

 

Make no mistake, once the court orders are delivered to FB, they WILL comply. No reason to block FB right now and do enormous damage to the SME economy that relies on FB (tons of SMEs here have a FB page without even having their won webpage). 

[colinneil]

Back peddling because if they blocked FB they would have over 60 million irate Thais to deal with.

[Dobredin Ghusputin]

Learning to live with loss of Face-book would not necessarily be a bad thing for thailand.

[bkkcanuck8]

4 minutes ago, Dobredin Ghusputin said:

Learning to live with loss of Face-book would not necessarily be a bad thing for thailand.

Oh, it would be bad .... really bad for many a girl who use it to send message to "I have no money, can you help" along with crying face emojis.....  Dead buffalos, bankrupt farms, all over the place would soon follow.... 

[silent]

15 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Back peddling because if they blocked FB they would have over 60 million irate Thais to deal with.

+++

[LennyW]

58 minutes ago, kotsak said:

Aye, at warp speed!!!

[mark01]

Well, thanks to this little tantrum, the video and photos are now all over the internet as number 1 Thailand news story.

Edited May 16, 2017 by mark01
Edit

[YetAnother]

this ado about nothing is totally what this govt is about; all about control; foolish foolish people; they have lost their credibility; showing now inept they really are in governing

[melvinmelvin]

I do hope that FB reacts to court orders only

and not to whims and wishes of PMs and ministers.

 

This term "deemed illicit" is somewhat flaky.

Edited May 16, 2017 by melvinmelvin

[YetAnother]

title of the article should be "thailand has no immediate plan"

[shavedPotter]

The prospect of 25 million angry Thais suddenly making a visit to government offices was not desired.

[stephen tracy]

The junta would be wise to choose it's battles.  At appears being a "soldier" hasn't necessary installed such wisdom.  They are truly pathetic.

[Chivas]

I'm amazed that certain forums still continue to exist relating to thailand (not this one obviously) albeit stickman by all accounts says one had to remove all nude photos recently. Would have thought they would have well in target sights rather than facebook

[darksidedog]

The PM is probably on his knees right now, praying that he doesn't get caught in a fight with Facebook. He can't win.

He loses face if he backs down and he loses even more if he blocks them. Thailand's name would be mud.

Edited May 16, 2017 by darksidedog

[hocuspocus]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Back peddling because if they blocked FB they would have over 60 million irate Thais to deal with.

Block Facebook and Line and maybe people will start talking to each other again.

[DaveBKK]

1 minute ago, hocuspocus said:

Block Facebook and Line and maybe people will start talking to each other again.

Whatever good came of that? Less murder, less violence, less war since FB/Line

[LannaGuy]

so a chink of weakness and I was looking forward to it   

[dcnx]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Back peddling because if they blocked FB they would have over 60 million irate Thais to deal with.

And this is exactly why Thais need to be ruled and do not deserve democracy.

 

60 million people should already be irate and be something to deal with. 

[dcnx]

All the Somchais need to get their stories together. One says no problem, another says it's imminent.

[wlcart]

Sad to me that Thailand has such low expectations when it comes to freedom of expression. It is considered a victory when the government allows FB to continue. In my opinion, blocking sites like FB shouldn't even be an option. 

Edited May 16, 2017 by wlcart

[tominbkk]

Whenever you hear a Thai representative say something, expect the complete opposite.

Though doing that would be a huge blow to many businesses here who use FB as a web page. Also closing down FB here would probably start a real revolution. I just don't see them doing it.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[masuk]

1 hour ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

Oh, it would be bad .... really bad for many a girl who use it to send message to "I have no money, can you help" along with crying face emojis.....  Dead buffalos, bankrupt farms, all over the place would soon follow.... 

You forgot mother's operation and grandma's funeral costs....

[dunroaming]

1 hour ago, mark01 said:

Well, thanks to this little tantrum, the video and photos are now all over the internet as number 1 Thailand news story.

Even in the Times today complete with photograph.

[Dogmatix]

This article and the rest of the reporting on this issue are not terribly clear but it sounds like out of the 131 URLs that FB has still not removed, they still lack Thai court orders for most of them, i.e. 97 URLs.  According to its own clearly announced rules FB will not remove content without a local court order.  I think they could suspend or shut down FB's office in Thailand which would certainly affect their ad revenues from one of their larger but probably not yet very lucrative markets.  But shutting down the local cache server would not block the offending pages.  It would only affect local content, i.e. advertising, and slow things down a bit.  I think the only option for the authorities is to block FB in Thailand completely, as China has done.  Part of the package I received from the Chinese tour operator before taking a trip there was instructions on how to continue using FB in China through a VPN.  I don't think they can take legal action against the local FB office regarding the content, as it is only a rep office of FB Ireland.  However, most rep offices do a lot more than they are allowed to do in their very restrictive business licences.  So I guess the local representative could easily be prosecuted for violation of the business licence and the office could be shut down.  

 

The problem with that would be that, if FB is forced to give up its business ambitions in Thailand and close its office, it would no longer have any incentive to try to comply with Thai court orders.    On the horns of a dilemma would aptly describe the authorities' predicament.

 

Edited May 16, 2017 by Dogmatix