Facebook to "consider" blocking local content

09 พฤษภาคม 2560

Facebook Inc has agreed to continue to consider the Thai government's requests to restrict local access to content on its site found to be in violation of the country's laws.

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Facebook to block local content

Suchit Leesa-nguansuk
Komsan Tortermvasana

Facebook Inc has agreed to continue to consider the Thai government's requests to restrict local access to content on its site found to be in violation of the country's laws.

The US internet giant replied to the Thai Internet Service Provider Association (Tispa) after a group of local internet service providers (ISPs) belonging to the association emailed an official request to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week.

Tispa is responsible for 95% of internet traffic in Thailand, and consists of 19 internet service providers as well as an international internet gateway (IIG).

The Criminal Court has ordered some 6,900 web pages or websites to be shut down since 2015, with the NBTC last week ordering all ISPs and IIG to block illicit web pages and content deemed illegal by the court within the next seven days, or risk having their licences revoked.

"When we receive such a request, it is scrutinised to determine if the specified content does indeed violate local laws," a Facebook spokesman, who declined to be named, told the Bangkok Post via email.

"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," he added.

"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," he said.

But there are still around 600 pages, mostly on Facebook, that local ISPs cannot block because they are encrypted, with the host servers located abroad.

The three Facebook pages at the very top of the government's "do not follow" orders were still available on Tuesday.

Following Facebook's decision, it was found that some of its content, including pages that allegedly contain lese majeste material by fugitive Somsak Jeamteerasakul, have already been removed – but it was unknown by whom.

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said Facebook's response was "a good sign" of things to come.

"The response from Facebook was a good sign of future cooperation between local ISPs and the US internet giant," he said.

Far from being a new policy, however, the Facebook statement appeared to reiterate old policy of the social media giant.

As of Tuesday, there was no sign any controversial pages had been removed as requested.

Mr Takorn said the regulator and local ISPs need to step up their cooperation with Facebook to deal with the proliferation of illicit web pages, especially those involved in pending court cases.

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