Ministry to cut officials' access to social media
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Interior Ministry officials will be able to access the popular social-networking website Facebook only during their lunch break after a ban goes into effect from October 1.
The ministry issued the order banning access to its officials’ favourite website after finding that its bandwidth went low because of excessive Internet usage for websites that did not seem to be related to the ministry’s work.
Internet tracking has revealed that Interior officials have visited www.facebook.com too often.
“The slow bandwidth has disrupted teleconferences,” Manrat Rattanasukhon said yesterday in his capacity as the head of the ministry’s Information and Communication Technology Centre.
He said his centre proposed the regulation to ban Facebook between 8.30am and noon and also between 1pm and 4.30pm to the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Pracha Terat, who on Thursday signed the order to enforce the ban.
“We will still allow www.youtube.com but will make downloads related to this website slower,” Manrat said.
He said the bandwidth was prepared for teleconferences, not for anything unnecessary.
“We will enforce the new rule from October 1 onwards,” he added.
An Interior official in Khon Kaen said he did not agree with the ban because Facebook in fact facilitated coordination and was now a channel for many government units to communicate with people.
“Facebook has saved time and expense, too. You don’t have to make a call. Facebook has allowed two-way communication,” he said.
Lamphun Governor Surachai Khan-asa said he had not yet received the order in writing. “But I agree with the ban. I believe officials will then devote more time to working for public services.”
He said he was still worried that some government officials might simply turn to their smart phones for browsing these social-networking websites.
