The Thai authorities have given power to all internet service providers (ISPs) to block lèse majesté websites using their own judgement while urging all ISPs and people to report online lèse majesté content to the authorities as soon as they find any.
Takorn Tantasith, the Secretary General of the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), posted on his twitter account, @TakornNBTC, that the NBTC and Special Branch Police (SBP), the police division responsible for crimes related to national security, agreed during a meeting on Monday afternoon to give power to ISPs to block lèse majesté websites.
The NBTC also urged ISPs to contact immediately the relevant personnel at the NBTC or the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) if there are doubts whether certain websites defame the revered Thai monarchy or not.
“The NBCT Office realises that some people might be too naive and post inappropriate content which threatens national security and offends the monarchy. Therefore, people should be careful before posting or sharing online content and if people see websites with illegal content which threatens national security, they should immediately report it to the NBTC via [email protected] ,” said the statement on the meeting between NBTC and SBP on Takorn’s twitter feed.
Facebook representatives were also invited to join the meeting on Monday. Thakorn said he wants the Facebook head office to respect Thailand’s Article 112, or lèse majesté law, and to cooperate with the Thai police in identifying and prosecuting Facebook users who violate the law. However according to Patraporn Tunnngam, a Thai Public Broadcasting Service journalist, Facebook declined to join the meeting, claiming that no representatives were available.
Pol Maj Gen Chaiwat Ketvorachai, the SBP commissioner, added in the meeting that the SBP will continue to hunt down people who are posting lèse majesté content without exception, as it violates Article 112 of the Criminal Code, and other sensitive content related to national security.
See related news:
Thai authorities to seek Facebook’s help to crack down on lèse majesté
Google rejects all censorship requests from Thai government in second half of 2013
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