Thai regulators reportedly plan to impose financial penalties on international social media providers such as Facebook if they fail to promptly remove or restrict local access to material deemed illegal under Thai law.
Regulator NBTC is planning a framework to give authorities the power to immediately demand the removal of “offensive” content from video sharing platform without first requiring a court order, the Bangkok Postreported.
Companies would have about a month to comply with a removal order or face penalties, according to the report.
But Facebook said it regularly receives and complies with requests from governments to limit access to content deemed illegal under local law. The company then evaluates whether the request is legitimate and restricts access when it is deemed to be necessary.
Thai authorities have been ramping up their efforts to clamp down on “illegal” content, which includes a wide range of material such as content critical of the royalty. But the report cites a top NBTC official as stating that the content also includes false advertising, the sale of sexual services and gambling.
He also cited the recent case of the Thai man who hung his daughter live on Facebook, and said the social network waited too long to take down the video.
Thai authorities have complained about the current slow process of executing take-down orders, including complaining that the sites often demand notices be translated into English to act on them, a process which they said can take weeks.