Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society on Thursday told the media that it had formally lodged a request to the Technology Crime Suppression Division to prosecute major social media providers for failing to remove all posts deemed illegal in Thailand.
"I have lodged formal complaints and warnings to these giant social media providers to take inappropriate posts off their media platforms," said Buddhipongse Punnakanta, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, adding that his warnings have fallen on deaf ears.
"My ministry had sent warning letters to the operators of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter telling them to block illegal information within 15 days, but they did not fully cooperate," said the minister.
He said that out of 661 links, 225 of them had been removed by Facebook after Thai court order.
And for Twitter, five out of 69 links had been removed.
To the minister's dismal, he said all of the targeted should have been removed.
He said, however, YouTube had blocked 289 links on Wednesday.
The minister also asked the Royal Thai Police division to prosecute social media users who disseminated the messages that offended the royal institution during the anti-government protest on Sept. 19 and 20.
The minister said that that social media operators who breach the Computer Crime Act are liable to a fine of 200,000 baht (6,300 U.S. dollars) per illegal post, plus a daily fine of 5,000 baht (158 U.S. dollars) until they are removed.