Facebook Faces Shutdown in Thailand After Failing to Remove 'Illicit' Pages

The Thai government may block access to Facebook within the country, as the social network has missed its Tuesday deadline to remove pages deemed "illicit" by authorities.

BANGKOK (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) issued a list of 309 pages that had to be removed from Facebook. On the following day, the network removed 178 posts in line with a court ruling but refused to delete the remaining 131, since their removal was not sanctioned by the court.

According to the Bangkok Post newspaper, Thai Internet Service Provider Association (Tispa) was ordered to completely shut down access to Facebook on Tuesday morning, since the social network had until 10 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) to delete the remaining 131 "illicit" pages. However, as of 12:30 p.m. local time (05:30 GMT), access had reportedly not been been removed yet.

The social network had been temporarily blocked once before several days after the military coup in May 2014.

Since the military takeover in Thailand, which was the result of a political crisis that had led to mass anti-government protests and bloodshed, political opposition and criticism have been suppressed. In addition, the government has since issued several decrees which criminalize offense of royal family and its members. Moreover, criticism against the authorities, including on the Internet, can now be recognized as subversive activities.