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Facebook Blocks Group of One Million Critical of Thai Monarchy Amid Government Pressure (reuters.com) 87

Posted by msmash from the stranger-things dept.
Facebook on Monday blocked access within Thailand to a group with 1 million members that discusses the country's king, after the Thai government threatened legal action over failure to take down content deemed defamatory to the monarchy. From a report: The move comes amid near daily youth-led protests against the government led by the former military junta chief and unprecedented calls for reforms of the monarchy. The "Royalist Marketplace" group was created in April by Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a self-exiled academic and critic of the monarchy. On Monday night, the group's page brought up a message: "Access to this group has been restricted within Thailand pursuant to a legal request from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society." Pavin, who lives in Japan, said Facebook had bowed to the military-dominated government's pressure. "Our group is part of a democratisation process, it is a space for freedom of expression," Pavin told Reuters.
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Facebook Blocks Group of One Million Critical of Thai Monarchy Amid Government Pressure More

Facebook Blocks Group of One Million Critical of Thai Monarchy Amid Government Pressure

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    • Thailand is likely the strictest country in the world about Lèse-majesté rules. Shame, because there is just so many fun things to say about the current monarch. I miss 9.

      • "Thailand is likely the strictest country in the world about Lèse-majesté rules."

        Winnie-the-Pooh-Land is not bad either.

        • Only one of those countries is currently facing sanctions though.
          The other one has always been reliably anti-communist and is therefore free to repress it's people without interference from the US.

          See also: Indonesia.

      • However it's not what most people think. The lÃse-majesté laws are enforced by the government as a means of selectively eliminating anyone they don't like, not because there's some big conspiracy to target the royal family. So if you're making too much trouble for the government you get the universal charge of lÃse-majesté thrown at you. Once charged you're pretty much automatically guilty, and end up with a long jail sentence. It's very convenient for disappearing anyone

  • Fuck the king and his censorship. (Score:3)

    by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @01:28PM (#60436605)

    Maybe in a couple hundred of years the citizens of Thailand will learn that the ability to criticize is more important then censorship.

    If you want to know who rules over you -- look at who you can't criticize.
    -- Kevin AlfredStrom [wikipedia.org]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Phact ( 4649149 )
      It's not the king. The king has advocated for the abolition of these laws but the legislature won't do it.
      • It's a little bit more complicated than that.

        The Army General 'Prime Minister' needs to continue the strict lese majeste laws to preserve his power. The King knows he needs the Army in power to keep his royal status. And the King also knows he has to publicly condemn those laws because he's so unpopular.

        The legislature, aka The Army, was only able to keep it's coup bloodless in 2014 because it was carried out with the blessing of the much loved King Rama IX.

        At that time, speaking frankly, it was as

        • Re:Fuck the king and his censorship. (Score:5, Informative)

          by infolation ( 840436 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @04:22PM (#60437367)
          ** CORRECTION **

          It's a little bit more complicated than that.

          The Army General 'Prime Minister' needs to continue the strict lese majeste laws to preserve his power. The King knows he needs the Army in power to keep his royal status. And the King also knows he has to publicly condemn those laws because he's so unpopular.

          The legislature, aka The Army, was only able to keep it's coup bloodless in 2014 because it was carried out with the blessing of the much loved King Rama IX.

          At that time, speaking frankly, it was assumed that Rama IX was on his last legs and therefore the army was given permission to seize power on the assumption they would be responsible for maintaining peace during an imminent transition of power to his generally reviled son, who is now Rama X.

          But Rama IX lasted somewhat longer than expected, and the army needed to cement power during the time he stayed alive. Thus the ever increasing enforcement of the lese majeste laws (32 years for liking a facebook post?? [theguardian.com])

          Now, with Rama X in place, who is still generally reviled, the head of the army (General '6 watches' Prayut) knows that, if Rama X's power is reduced, the army's grip on power is weakened.

          But Rama X understands that any further dent in his razor-thin popularity could result in his own demise, thus knows he must publicly condemn the hated lese majeste laws.

  • Any leader who bans critique shouldn't lead. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ZorinLynx ( 31751 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @01:30PM (#60436615) Homepage

    Good leaders listen to critique. They might ignore it in some cases, but at the very least they listen. Banning critique and punishing people for it just leads to being surrounded by yes-men and the leader will start making more and more bad decisions because everyone is afraid to question them.

    Eventually the people will suffer, and if things get bad enough, the leader will be overthrown.

    Really, there's no reason to go down this path. Just allow critique. Even if not all of it is listened to.

    • Banning critique and punishing people for it just leads to being surrounded by yes-men and the leader will start making more and more bad decisions because everyone is afraid to question them.

      Eventually the people will suffer, and if things get bad enough, the leader will be overthrown.

      This path with yes-men then bad decisions then suffering always happens. The question is whether overthrow of the regime happens. Sometimes the overthrown happens. However, as China has been showing the world, the other outcome other is a perfecting of Orwellian efficiency.

      Originally some revolutionaries start out with a sincere belief that they are for the common people, and they are open to criticisms and suggestions. A prime example of this is Mao with his Hundred Flowers Campaign. However, there te

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      Is the Monarch the actual leader or is it the former military junta leader?

    • You're not wrong, but the king of Thailand is an absolute arsehole, who would be strung up from a telephone pole if his subjects got hold of him.
      He is propped up by the military, and has no interest in being a good leader.
  • Hand on the book. Do you really use it or just have it installed on your phone and keep it logged in al the time? And with such behaviour they are loosing a few million more to Telegram and tiktok. They cud have just kicked all thai gov of the platform instead but no mr. Brown nose needs to keep it greased. Learn from telegram.

  • Zuckerberg is a hypocrite (Score:5, Interesting)

    by phalse phace ( 454635 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @01:40PM (#60436651)

    Zuckerberg is a hypocrite. He/Facebook doesn't care about freedom of expression.

    Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Stoked Washington's Fears About TikTok [slashdot.org]

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Stoked Washington’s Fears About TikTok

    Aug. 23, 2020

    When Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg delivered a speech about freedom of expression in Washington, D.C., last fall, there was also another agenda: to raise the alarm about the threat from Chinese tech companies and, more specifically, the popular video-sharing app TikTok.

    Tucked into the speech was a line pointing to Facebook’s rising rival: Mr. Zuckerberg told Georgetown students that TikTok doesn’t share Facebook’s commitment to freedom of expression

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Zuckerberg is the CEO of a major publicly traded corporation. He has a duty to his shareholders. If he had any ideology in the first place, it was squeezed out of him by the threat of minority shareholder lawsuits. Also by his own multibillion dollar stake.

      • Then he should stop fucking saying things like:

        “TikTok doesn’t share Facebook’s commitment to freedom of expression.”

        If he says inconsistent things, expect people to comment, which is fair. If his comments are bullshit, then criticism is legitimate. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t HAVE to be an insincere, dishonest person to be a CEO.

        Too many of them are, though.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Why? Zuckerberg told US government officials that when summoned to defend his company. It simultaneously helped deflect scrutiny of Facebook, damaged a dangerous rival, and played to the political agenda of the current government.

          No, you don't have to be an insincere, dishonest person to be a CEO, but it sure helps, more so the bigger the company gets, and particularly when your business is pretty creepy to start with.

          Comment away. But don't be surprised at corporate behaviour. The incentives are way too bi

  • Kings (Score:3)

    by NateFromMich ( 6359610 ) on Monday August 24, 2020 @01:44PM (#60436671)
    Here we are in the 21st century, and people are still listening to someone that calls himself a King.

    Crazy.

    • I didn't vote for him.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Here we are in the 21st century, and people are still listening to someone that calls himself a King.

      Crazy.

      There's lots of monarchs around the world and many are state leaders. Perhaps you've heard of Canada? Australia? England? All have a monarch as head of state (currently a Queen). Pretty much every Commonwealth nation has her as head of state.

      Granted, her powers are mostly ceremonial at this point - she rarely rules directly - going through her representative (Governor-General, or Queen's Representative

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      Here we are in the 21st century, and people are still listening to someone that calls himself a King.

      Crazy.

      But people listening to someone who calls herself a Queen is just normal?

  • Do they still have internet? If so, then what's the problem?

    • The problem is that when American companies fail to uphold American values abroad, they find it that much easier to fail to do so at home as well. Case in point: in Thailand you can't criticize the Kind. In the United States, you can't criticize or even name the guy who set off last year's impeachment bullshit. For the same reason that the king ought not be beyond criticism, neither should the guy who caused us all (Congress, the administration, the press) to be "distracted" from far more pressing matters l

      • the guy who caused us all (Congress, the administration, the press) to be "distracted" from far more pressing matters last winter.

        I tend to focus on those who chose to follow the distractions instead of staying focused on those far more pressing matters... Only they can correct the course.

        • Ah...but when the people controlling the series of tubes encourage us all to follow the distractions and strongly discourage us all from questioning the distractions, would you not agree that that too is a problem of comparable, if not greater, magnitude?

          • It matters not. We are human. We take our own initiative... don't we? Don't answer that!

            I think most people just go with, "eh, good enough"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fenrif ( 991024 )

          And one of the best ways to do this is to point out when they have been distracted, how they were distracted, and who distracted them.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Isn't the current ruler of the US also after Facebook and Twitter for much the same reason?

  • Fuck all Monarchies right in their fascist assholes.

  • POTUS calls it Thighland, and he's the most powerful person on the world, allegedly, so what he says counts. Right?

    On a serious note, Facebook doesn't give one shot about countries other than the US. Zuck has made that clear time and again (the Rohingya in Burma, for one). Recently he said Facebook is dedicated to "freedom of expression", but the asterisks there is that this applies only to U.S. jurisdictions (and abides by whatever internal rules Facebook has).

  • His name comes in 23 parts, the shortest is 2 letters long, and the longest is 22 characters long. He is the oldest man to be crowned ever, ascending to the throne at age 64.

    He simultaneously holds the ranks of Field Marshal of the Army, Admiral of the Fleet and the Marshal of the Air Fleet, each a five star designation. USNavy last awarded that rank in 1945. US Air Force never awarded that rank, but one US Army Air Force five star general came over as the first and only General of the Air Force.

    For some reason smaller the country is, bigger seems to be the pompous titles. In this regard one has to admire Singapore. It has 72000 personnel, almost 7 divisions, but almost all are reservists and two year service conscripts. It modestly calls its Chief of Defense Staff Lt General.

    • You forgot the fact that he promoted his pet poodle fufu [wikipedia.org] to the rank of Air Chief Marshal of the Royal Thai Air Force.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by _merlin ( 160982 )

        And made his (now ex-) wife perform topless at a birthday party for said poodle: https://vimeo.com/101336844 [vimeo.com]

      • He also self isolated from COVID with a literal harem of women [nypost.com]. The problem most Thais, not just the students, have with RAMA X is he refuses to do his job. He's built a huge property in Munich and lives there pretty much all the time now. He rules over a country where he has barely ever resided and seemingly has no interest in returning.

    • I think if you include Singapore Armed forces reservists, you are looking at about a million or so in the SIngapore Armed Forces.

      Reservists are usually only called upon about once a year for training and other times only to be called during an emergency. So the 72000 you mentioned are probably the full timers and those serving the 2 years tour of duties (National Service as it's called, before they become reservists).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      PS : I just finished my reservists duties in Singapore, so

      • I stand corrected. 72000 regular service personnel. The GOC-in-C could be called a full general by any standard. Singapore should be admired for this self restraint.

  • Facebook should be ashamed to take away the freedom of speech of that group . Monarchy is just a dictatorship in disguise. Totally anti democracy. Facebook : freaking shame on you .. totally disgusting

  • If users know that FB is going to keep becoming more and more restrictive, fewer and fewer people are going to bother using them for anything important. I pretty much only use it to post pictures of my kids for relatives, and I think that is eventually all that is going to be left on FB. Who is going to setup their group on FB knowing that FB will arbitrarily shut it down if they don't like it?
  • They can block a million angry people on Facebook but there are still a million people who are angry.

  • ...you can Imagine the shrill screaming that'd be going on right now about Political interference.

  • FB and King Zuck don't give a flying fuck about people, rights abuse or anything else but dollar signs.
  • The instigator of the royalist marketplace group, who is self-exiled in Japan, created a new group last night and it's already being joined by thousands.

  • Great song by Rush. That is all...

  • Same thing they are doing in the US, except in the US they accede to leftist demands, not government demands, because we are the land of the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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