Computer law ‘may make Facebook act’

A LEGAL expert has said certain clauses in the Computer Crime Act may be enforced to have social media giant Facebook block access to website content deemed illegal.
Paiboon Amonpinyokeat, who advised the National Legislative Assembly committee that drafted the law’s 2017 amendments, said Sections 14 and 15 of the legislation might be applied if authorities could prove Facebook’s local office was aware of the flow of illegal content through its network but failed to remove such content by blocking particular URLs.
His comments came after the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) set Facebook a Tuesday deadline to block a remaining 131 websites of 309 it wants removed.
If the NBTC failed to prove the social media giant was aware of the illegal content, it would need to take legal action directly with Facebook Inc, he said. But that process would take longer, possibly over a year, since any action would have to involve the Criminal Court and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in submitting an indictment against an overseas-based firm.
US-based Facebook’s office in Thailand has a caching data network (CDN) that allows local flows of information before it goes to the parent company.
If the authorities wanted to take legal action against the Facebook office in Thailand, they would need to prove that the local office was the CDN of Facebook Inc that caches data in Thailand and sends it outside Thailand, Paiboon said.
Section 14 sets a maximum jail term of five years and a fine of up to Bt100,000 for anyone found guilty of putting into a computer system any data or information that violates the Penal Code. Section 15 stipulates that any service provider allowing such wrongdoing through their computer system is also liable to the same penalties.
According to the Computer Crime Act, a “service provider” refers to not only Internet service providers but also content platforms such as Pantip.com, Tarad.com and Facebook.
The Facebook office in Thailand is a different legal entity from Facebook Inc, which also operates the server for its local office. Its office in Thailand only processes data/information and sends it through Facebook’s overseas-located server.
The local Facebook office is overseen by Facebook Ireland, not Facebook Inc of the US.
Authorities are seeking cooperation from Facebook in blocking access to a remaining 131 web-pages deemed illegal. The social media giant has already blocked 178 of the 309 web pages requested by the authorities while Google and YouTube have blocked all the 469 web-pages requested.
These are among the 6,900 URLs earlier ordered by court to be blocked due to their illegal content. About 30 per cent of the online content on those web pages involves lese majeste, according to Morrakot Kulatumyotin, president of the Thailand Internet Service Provider Association (Tispa). The remaining illegal content includes gambling, pornography and phishing scams.
Morrakot said yesterday that more than 60 per cent of illegal URLs are no longer accessible one week after Tispa asked Facebook by email to block them. 
She told The Nation that Facebook did not officially reply to the email sent last week but the social media giant seemed to have taken action. Some Facebook pages reportedly are no longer accessible from Thailand.
“Feedback is better, since within one week of sending the email to Facebook, more than 60 per cent of the URLs have been blocked,” said Morrakot.
The NBTC has given Facebook until Tuesday to comply with its request for the remaining 131 websites to be blocked.
Morrakot said the issue of blocking |URLs is sensitive since it is related to the human rights and it has drawn much |attention locally and overseas.
Facebook said earlier this week it would check requests to see if content does violate local laws. “If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted.”