The Minister shall issue an announcement determining processes for the giving of warnings, the termination of the circulation of computer data, and the removal of such computer data from computer systems. Case study 2: Thanakorn32 In December 2015, Thanakorn was arrested and charged with violating Section 14 (2) and (3) of the CCA for copying and disseminating an infographic explaining the Rajabhakti Park military corruption scandal and for satirising the King’s dog. He was also charged with sedition and lèse majesté for this conduct. He was detained in prison for months since the court denied his request for bail. Later the military court changed its order and gave him a provisional release. The case is still in the process of witness examination in military court. Case study 3: Katha33 Katha was an employee in a stock trading firm. After posting a message about a sell-off on the stock exchange, he was arrested and was accused of using “Wet Dream” as his alias to post messages on the Fah Deaw Kan webboard. His was charged for two counts including posting false statements that caused panic among the public and compromised national security, a breach as per the Computer Crimes Act, Section 14(2). He denied all charges, claiming that the stock market had failed due to a rumour circulating before the post was published. However, the court did not agree with him. The Court of Appeal sentenced him to two years imprisonment for each count, or four years all together. The penalties were subsequently reduced by one third, and so the defendant was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison. Section 15: Intermediary liability Section 15 of the revised CCA states: Any service provider who provides cooperation to, consents to, or connives at the commission of any crime under section 14 within a computer system under his control shall be liable to the same punishment as the criminal under section 14. 32 “Thanakorn : Clicked like on lèse majesté facebook page and satirized royal dog”. Freedom of Expression Documentation Centre. https://freedom.ilaw.or.th/en/case/702 33 “Katha: Wet dream (Stock falling case)”. Freedom of Expression Documentation Centre. https://freedom.ilaw.or.th/en/case/83 If the service provider successfully proves that he has observed the announcement issued by the Minister by virtue of paragraph 2, he needs not to undergo the punishment.34 This is the only provision which criminalises internet service providers (ISPs). Before the amendment, the definition of ISPs under Thai law was very broad and included all kinds of service providers: internet service providers, content providers, platform providers and server hosting had the same liabilities under Section 15. The uncertainty of the time period for ISPs in the previous version of Section 15 also led to a culture of following law enforcement officials’ recommendations and self-censorship among ISPs. The amendment of the CCA brought a new hope with the “notice and takedown” process for ISPs to avoid legal charges. However, to implement the new provisions of the CCA, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has created a new notice and takedown system35 with unreasonably short and restrictive time limits for ISPs to remove “infringing” online material. The time limits are as follows: • Online material violating Section 14(1) must be removed within seven days after the complaint has been received. • Online material violating Section 14(2) and 14(3) must be removed within 24 hours after the complaint has been received. • Online material violating Section 14(4) must be removed within three days of the complaint being received. The system allows anyone, including police officers, security officers, individuals, business competitors or any internet users, to send a notice to ISPs to take down any content. The system has also created a big burden for ISPs to consider whether the alleged infringing content is a violation of laws or not. In practice, it is foreseen that ISPs tend to remove almost all content they have received notifications for. On the other hand, law enforcement officials will use 34 English translation sourced from: https://thainetizen.org/docs/ cybercrime-act-2017 35 iLaw. (n/d). DE Ministry giving clear warning for notice and takedown of data breaching national security within 24 hours. iLaw. https://ilaw.or.th/node/4607 THAILAND / 131