Thailand welcomes Twitter’s censorship

THE THAI GOVERNMENT has welcomed the news that Twitter will be happy to censor messages geographically and has said that it will work with the firm on just that.

Last week Twitter announced that it will let countries request bans on certain content while keeping it available for the rest of the world.

"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content," it said.

"Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries' limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country."

In an interview with the Bangpost Post, Thailand's government head of information technology said that her ministry will contact Twitter about the option and will use it to its advantage.

It is a "welcome development", according to ICT permanent secretary Jeerawan Boonperm. She added that the country already has "good cooperation" from Google and Facebook when it comes to ensuring that Thai laws are respected.

Thailand has a difficult relationship with the internet and modern communications and doesn't hesitate to stamp down harshly on political dissenters.

In February last year we reported that a Thai web site manager was facing up to 20 years in prison for failing to remove comments that were critical of the country's monarchy, while in November a man was imprisoned for sending rude text messages about the King. µ