BANGKOK, 4 June 2014 – The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has cancelled a plan to talk with a service provider of a famous multi platform messaging application ‘LINE’.
Previously the ministry, in compliance with the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), decided to make a request to LINE Corporation in Japan to inspect its database for messages sending from Thailand that may violate the Martial Law’s article on instigating rifts among Thais.
Pol Maj-Gen Pisit Pao-in, advisor to the ICT Ministry, said the ministry has called off the meeting with the company along with service providers of other social media: Facebook and Google. He said the decision came after the NCPO has deemed that users may resort to other means of communication if it proceeds to impose such a measure. Nonetheless, the advisor urged the social media consumers to refrain from making the comment that would breach the Martial Law in use.
Pol Maj-Gen Pisit stressed that the Ministry does not have a policy to cut-off the public from the Internet, nor to ban the use of messaging applications in social media.
Furthermore, he said the ICT Ministry would talk to the internet service providers who possess their own internet gateway such as TOT and CAT in creating an internet security network. He also mentioned a possibility of providing an affordable internet service and creating a ‘Thailand Social Network’ for all Thais.
