Line Thailand has agreed to meet the Social Media Reform panel to discuss screening out "inappropriate content". The meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday in Parliament.

The subcommittee is operating in conjunction with the Mass Media Reform Committee, and the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA).

Police Maj-General Pisit Pao-in, the first vice president of Mass Media Reform Committee and president of the NRSA's Social Media Reform subcommittee, told The Nation that following his panel's invitation, Line Thailand agreed to meet to discuss how to work together.

Earlier, the Social Media Reform subcommittee had three meetings with Google executives. The first was held unofficially in December 2015, while the second and third were official meetings in January. As a result, the government received good co-operation from Google to reduce processing and take-down time for "inappropriate [video] content" from YouTube.

The move is an attempt by the subcommittee to secure co-operation from the three largest social media platforms - Google's YouTube, Facebook, and Line - to take down "inappropriate content", especially those deemed as violating lese majeste restrictions and national security.

As president of the NRSA's Social Media Reform subcommittee, Pisit aims to collaborate with the three main social media service providers by the end of March.

However, Line Thailand had earlier released a statement saying, it is "aware of recent news reports regarding a request for censorship made to Line. However, Line has yet to be contacted by an official entity requesting such censorship."

"The privacy of Line users is our top priority. Once we have been officially contacted, we will conduct due diligence of the related parties and consider an appropriate solution that does not conflict with our company's global standards, or the laws of Thailand," it said.

Pisit insisted the government would not censor online content but it would regulate online content. He said that if the government asked them to take down content, then the authorities would process the investigation without asking service providers for users' information.

Messaging app in Thailand discusses screening out "inappropriate content", AsiaOne Digital News