BANGKOK – In a crackdown against fake news related to the new coronavirus, Thai authorities have arrested two people for allegedly producing and spreading misleading information on social media.
The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry and the Royal Thai Police’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) announced on Thursday that they identified six sources of fake news that have caused fears and confusion among the Thai public.
DES Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said the two suspects that had been arrested so far after police obtained court warrants to search several locations.
They were charged of violating Computer Crime Act, he said; one of them for posting false report of a coronavirus death in Pattaya and the other for posting an edited video clip of people collapsing.
Police officers were still searching for other suspects including those who sent fake report of a death in Phuket, he said.
Between January 25 and 29, the ministry’s anti-fake news center examined thousands of online messages and posts and dozens were found to misleading information, Buddhipongse said in the news conference.
The DES also revealed online messages to counter fake news being shared on social media; for examples, cover-up of patients and anti-virus oral spray.
The Minister urged internet users to join anti-fake news efforts by alerting the anti-fake news center or reporting to a disease control hotline, 1422.
Launched on November 1 last year, the anti-fake news center was aimed to detect misleading claims on social-media platforms.(
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