Thailand’s DES Ministry blocks over 178,000 illegal URLs in 14 months

The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry has successfully blocked access to more than 178,000 URLs of illegal websites and social media pages over the past 14 months.

DES Minister Prasert Chanthararuangthong said on Thursday that his ministry’s priority is to combat online crime and to do that it is collaborating with internet service providers to block URLs and social media pages linked to illegal activities.

Between October 2023 and November this year, a total of 178,609 URLs were blocked, averaging 12,757 URLs per month.

This marks an 8.6-fold increase compared to the previous year (October 2022 to September 2023), during which only 17,670 URLs were blocked.

Prasert attributed this increase to improvements in monitoring deceptive platforms and more efficient coordination with internet operators to take swift action. As soon as the ministry is alerted by police about illegal websites, or when it detects them independently, it seeks the DES minister’s approval to draft a request for a court order to block the sites.

Once the court issues the order, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, internet providers and online platforms are informed and must block the URLs within two or three days.

Those who fail to comply can face daily fines. So far, the ministry stands to collect 21 million baht in fine from internet providers and online platforms, Prasert added.