Thailand asks Facebook to delete content
November 25, 2011
BANGKOK: Thailand has asked social networking website Facebook to delete more than 10,000 pages of content containing images or text which it claims are “offensive” to the monarchy, a minister said Thursday.
The news comes a day after a Thai court jailed a man for 20 years for sending four text messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, alarming critics who say the kingdom’s strict lese-majeste laws hamper free speech.
“We have informed Facebook and sought their assistance in deleting content which is offensive to our monarchy,” the country’s information minister Anudith Nakornthap told AFP.
“There are more than 10,000 URLs which seem to insult the monarchy,” he said, adding that people should not click “Like” or comment on “offensive” posts as this would be considered indirect dissemination of the material.
Under Thai law, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent can face a prison sentence of up to 15 years for each offence. Even repeating details of an alleged offence is illegal.
In the last few weeks, a number of pro-monarchy Facebook pages have appeared, including one encouraging users to flag content which could be in violation of lese-majeste laws.
The news comes a day after a Thai court jailed a man for 20 years for sending four text messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, alarming critics who say the kingdom’s strict lese-majeste laws hamper free speech.
“We have informed Facebook and sought their assistance in deleting content which is offensive to our monarchy,” the country’s information minister Anudith Nakornthap told AFP.
“There are more than 10,000 URLs which seem to insult the monarchy,” he said, adding that people should not click “Like” or comment on “offensive” posts as this would be considered indirect dissemination of the material.
Under Thai law, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent can face a prison sentence of up to 15 years for each offence. Even repeating details of an alleged offence is illegal.
In the last few weeks, a number of pro-monarchy Facebook pages have appeared, including one encouraging users to flag content which could be in violation of lese-majeste laws.
