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Thailand to impose financial penalties on Facebook for ‘illegal’ content

Bloomberg Published on Fri, Jun 09, 2017 / 5:29 PM GMT+8

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BANGKOK (June 9): Thai regulators plan to impose financial penalties on Facebook Inc. and other companies with video-sharing platforms if they fail to swiftly remove what they deem to be illegal content.

The new framework would give authorities the power to immediately demand the removal of offensive material without waiting for a court order, Colonel Natee Sukonrat, vice chairman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said in an interview on Wednesday. Details will be released as early as this month, he said, and companies would have about a month to comply.

“I will not touch the service; I will touch the way you make money," Natee said when asked about penalties if companies ignore the requests. “They have to play by the rules,” he said. “I think they will cooperate because they make a lot of money from Thailand.”