In the second half of 2016 Facebook blocked 40 items that allegedly broke Thailand’s laws forbidding disrespect for the monarch. That was an increase from 10 in the first half of that year.
Facebook claims that it must do this when a court order is issued under Thailand’s
lèse majesté laws that deny free speech to republicans.
The monarchist Thai state recently threatened legal action against Facebook if it did not block 131 addresses claimed to be a threat to the security of the military-ruled state or in breach of its lèse majesté laws. The military authorities withdrew their demands but threatened to make them again when it has court orders.
The Thai state claims to have succeeded in blocking 150 other Facebook pages.
In the last three years since the military took power more than 100 people have been charged under the lèse majesté laws that make illegal anything considered insulting to the feudal institution.
Thais have been sent to prison by the vicious regime for as many as thirty years for insulting the monarchy on Facebook. Among the “insults” the regime wants to suppress is a photograph of the king wearing a crop top in Germany before becoming monarch.