Govt to Control Social Media
Not a surprise in light of the drubbing on Facebook of late.
Thai junta to tighten up control over social media | Prachatai English
Despite censorship and surveillance already imposed on the press and on Internet users after the coup d’état in May, the junta is now stirring up an environment of fear further by tightening up its control on social media.
Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd, Deputy Spokesman of the Prime Minster office, said on Wednesday morning at a press briefing that Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, the Prime Minister and head of the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), ordered Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) to come up with measures to tighten its control over social media.
Sansern said “the PM confirms that this is only to take care, but not to control. People need to understand not to infringe on other’s rights to improve the society.”
Since last month, the credibility of the Thai authorities has been put into test as Thais and the British and Myanmar media criticized the Thai authorities, especially the Thai police, over the investigation into the case of Koh Tao murder, where two Britons were killed on the touristic island of Thailand. Thai police accused two Myanmar citizen of murdering the British, while Thai social media users said the two Myanmar are scapegoats. Gen Prayuth has supported the work of police and urged people to stop criticizing.
In September, the Thai authorities reportedly started implementing a surveillance device to sniff out Thai Internet users, specifically targeting those producing and reading lèse majesté content, a report says. Although the report is yet to be confirmed, it has created greater climate of fear among media.
Since May, the junta issued Order No. 26/2014 on the control of social media, which gave MICT permission to access all kinds of internet traffic.
