Thailand takes legal action against Facebook, Twitter

The Thai Ministry of Digital Economy and Society filed a complaint to the cybercrime police against Facebook and Twitter. - File files / REUTERS

BANGKOK: The Thai Ministry of Digital Economy and Society on Thursday filed a complaint with the cybercrime police against Facebook and Twitter for ignoring requests to block content deemed illegal against the Thai monarchy.

Digital Economy and Community Minister Puttipong Punnakanta said the ministry had warned the two social media companies to delete the content on Aug 27, however they missed the 15-day deadline to comply with the court order.

He said Facebook only deleted 225 out of 661 submissions and Twitter removed five out of 69 submissions.

He said no action was taken against Google Alphabet as it had released 289 YouTube videos as stated in the order on Wednesday.

"This is the first time we have used the Computer Crime Act against a major social media company for not providing full cooperation (to delete content).

"Action will be taken according to Thai law because it happened in Thailand," he told a press conference here today.

Under the Computer Crime Act, those found violating the act will be fined up to 200,000 baths, then 5,000 baths a day until the order is complied with.

Puttipong said the ministry would file more requests to the social media company to delete more items related to drugs, pornography and criticism of the king.

"The ministry will file more requests to Facebook, Twitter and Google to remove 3,000 items from their platform including 1,748 on Facebook, YouTube (607) and Twitter (261) as well as about 400 items from other websites," he said.

Meanwhile, Puttipong said the ministry had also filed separate complaints against five individuals including politicians and protest leaders, who were accused of criticizing the monarchy on Facebook and Twitter during a massive anti-government protest in Bangkok last weekend.