The government of Thailand has backed off its earlier threat to ban Facebook in the country. The issue stemmed after the platform hosted content that is illegal in the country.
Thailand is a monarchy. And the king is a highly respected persona there. So much that insulting the king results in a crime of Lese Majeste which can attract prison terms or worse. The country is currently ruled by a military Junta that told Facebook in no uncertain terms that it would ban the social networking platform in the country if it did not prevent Thai users from accessing 131 “illicit” posts that were deemed to be insulting to the royal family in one way or the other.
The Thai government had given Facebook a time limit of 10:00 am on May 16 to comply with its demands. However, the posts are still up and Facebook remains accessible to users in the nation.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook said:
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. When we receive such a request, it is scrutinized to determine if the specified content does indeed violate local laws. 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.
Clearly, Facebook does not believe that the content is demeaning to the royal family.
Meanwhile, Facebook has censored around 178 webpages that were earlier submitted by a Thai court. The court had actually asked the company to remove 309 pages.
Facebook has run into similar problems with Thailand earlier as well. The country blocked the social network in May 2014. However, it later unblocked it claiming that it was caused due to a glitch. Interestingly, the block occurred one week after the military junta first seized power.
The company has around 45 million monthly users in the country. It doesn’t want to risk being blocked either and as such, it has been geo-blocking articles and other content that has been deemed to be potentially illegal in Thailand.
It does give you food for thought though. Is Facebook right in blocking content in a country that is not being ruled by a democratic government but rather by the military, which has seized power? Or is it complying with the so called laws merely to preserve its business.
