ISPs given 7 days to block illicit content

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The national telecom regulator has ordered all internet service providers (ISPs) to block illicit webpages and content deemed illegal by the court within the next seven days, or face the chance of having their licences revoked.

Any ISP that fails to comply with the order will face penalties ranging from paying a fine to having its operating licence revoked to being accused of a criminal offence. The order relates to content which a court has previously declared illegal.

The latest resolution came after a special meeting Wednesday hosted by National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

In the meeting, they invited a deputy permanent secretary of the Digital Economy and Society (DE) Ministry, a representative from the Defence Ministry's centre for solving security problems, and a representative from the Technology Crime Suppression Division.

Col Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of NBTC's telecom committee, said the move aims to intensify a measure to deal with illicit content that has still been left in the ISPs' servers.

"The telecom committee has the authority to police the ISPs' data centre, servers and content delivery network as all of them fall under the NBTC's regulations concerning the internet service licence regime," he said.

Usually, providers such as Facebook and YouTube use additional local servers which speeds up access to data and reduces demand on an enterprise's bandwidth.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the NBTC management will send the order to all ISPs by today.

After the next seven days, the NBTC, along with the DE, the Technology Crime Suppression Division and the national security agency will recheck the database of ISPs to ensure the ISPs comply with the order.

If any ISPs claim they cannot block illicit content and webpages as required due to technical problems, the NBTC and related agencies would work with them to help solve the problem, he said.

Mr Takorn said ISPs must give sound reasons if the illicit content still remain after the deadline.

"We (NBTC and related parties) will not let the problem go any further," Mr Takorn said.