Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiwut Thanakhamanusorn confirmed today court orders instructing internet service providers to block or remove 8 users the government says used social media or their own websites to post fake news. The ISPs met with the ministry to receive the court order to block the users.
The court ordered the ISPs to either remove or block access to information shared by the 8 accounts on any websites or social networks the alleged fake news is published on. The order also instructs ISPs to block and remove their IP addresses and passwords.
The minister provided instructions to the ISPs on what steps they must take to remove and block the accounts. They were also informed of penalties for failure to comply with the order. He warned other internet uses to exercise caution in what they post on the internet and me mindful of Thailand’s online laws.
The 8 people included in the list to be banned are:
1. Pavin Chachavalpongpan – an outspoken professor at Kyoto University, living in exile in Japan. He’s been critical of the government and monarchy and when he was ordered to turn himself in after the 2014 coup, offered to send his pet chihuahua instead. He created The Royalist Marketplace, a Facebook page that was blocked after amassing over 1 million members.
2. Royalist Marketplace – Talad Luang – the replacement Facebook page Pavin created to freely discuss the Thai government and monarchy is also on the list.
3. Andrew MacGregor Marshal – A Scottish journalist who was the first journalist in the world to break the story of King Bhumibol’s death hours before the official announcement. He resigned from Reuters when they didn’t publish a controversial story about the monarchy’s political involvement and his 2014 book A Kingdom in Crisis is banned in Thailand.
He took to Twitter within the past hour to that the court’s demands are impossible for ISPs to enforce, from a technological standpoint, saying ISPs can’t selectively block individual Facebook pages. He called the ruling a publicity stunt.
“Unless they have some other plan, my Facebook will continue to be accessible in Thailand, and it’s an embarrassment that the country’s digital economy minister doesn’t even know how the internet works.”
4. Suda Rangkupan – a former lecturer in Linguistics at Chulalongkorn University, in exile since the 2014 coup, who calls herself pro-democracy and Republicanism, and calls for the monarchy to be abolished.
5. DK Ning – a popular Facebook and YouTube account.
6. Aum Neko – a transgender student activist that used sexually provocative photos to call for equality, protest school uniforms and fight for pro-democracy and anti-monarchy causes, now exiled in France after deciding to flee arrest knowing she would be held in a male prison.
7. Kon Thai UK – A Facebook page highly critical of PM Prayut Chan-o-Cha, that saw 10 people prosecuted for computer crimes after sharing posts from its page.
8. Pixel HELPER – A German-based non-profit that states they fight for human rights through art and satire, claiming “we don’t want to be taken seriously, but our opponents have to take us seriously,” which seems to be the case in today’s ruling for ISPs to block these 8 users.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
And what is the fake news? There is no fake news it is news from well established newspapers international news chanel on it. So it would be interesting what they they exactly declared at fake news then they can go directly to this chanels newspapers and even can go the courts in that countries and they will see the results. Because they declared it as fake news without any evidence facebook will not put this pages down and they already anounce that!
I wouldnt fight with a german page this could back fire and bring them international including sombody living their in a serious trouble. By the way Thai airways ows a lot of money to Germany and also the Thai government and by the way what is with huge amounts of taxes in Bavaria they not paid. I wouldnt make to much noise because this will backfire and they (Germany) have a lot of firepower and political power. But they are free to go to german court and show them the evidence for the fake news, everybody is very interested to see!
Most people didn’t know about the sinful 8. Now they do
Blocking Internet is like trapping water in a napkin.
These posters will just reregister with a new accounts and carry on.
If that is blocked they will do the same again.
Weep you Thai tyrants who try to block objections.
The Internet cat is out of the bag and cannot be put back.
Kudos to the author of this Thaiger article.
Earlier I read the article from which this one is sourced. I was frustrated by its linguistic sloppiness and lack of all but the most superficial background research.
Additional political / judicial / technical analyses would have been nice, but that’s probably asking for too much.
Not a single bit of fake news – that’s the fake right there. The Thai government, like most, is stuck in the dark ages and ill-equipped to deal with the age of the Internet. They are literally retarded in the true sense of the word.
Thailand will become the same like China in the future! The military goverment shows what kind off people they are, no one can be suprised
I’ll be sure to follow all of them.
As will many others
Cheers
Fantastic bit of information that I didn’t know before. Thanks for spreading awareness.
My god these people in power really got to come back down to earth if they think they hold sway over the global internet ??????
The only “fake news” seems to come only from the juntas government!
“it’s an embarrassment that the country’s digital economy minister doesn’t even know how the internet works.”
Very true, verging on highly amusing.
Even if the ISPs were to block them as requested / ordered, all they need is a free VPN. Almost (ALMOST) unbelievable that anyone vaguely familiar with the internet is unaware of this, let alone the “Digital Economy Minister”.
Thanks for the court and ministry of this list. Surely worth of reading and following them! Without the court, I would have never known.
Looks like Thailands military Junta have been taking advice from the Chinese Communist Party again. I wonder how long before they form an unholy alliance with them to ensure beyond all doubt that the Junta stays in charge of Thailand like ‘uncle Kim’ in North Korea. Unless changes come very soon even the pretence of democracy in Thailand id dead!