• On 12 April 2017, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society released a prohibition order preventing people from contacting three persons, Somsak Jeamteerasakul, Pavin Chachavalpongpun and Andrew MacGregor Marshall. The order was announced on online media so people would not dare to go and see these three’s Facebook posts. This raised the question as to whether being a “friend” on Facebook with these three persons was legal or not. Hours later, Captain Somsak Kaosuwan, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, explained that this order had no legal effect. • In May 2017, Provincial Police Region 1 announced that even though it could not arrest persons who posted content against the monarchy on Facebook who were in exile abroad, it had eyes on those Facebook pages. What we should bear in mind is that visiting and reading content on social media were not illegal under any existing laws. • On 8 June 2017, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) announced an “over the top” system to regulate online content. The NBTC ordered all online media that had an online platform, for example, YouTube and Facebook, to register. The NBTC reasoned that YouTube and Facebook, which provide platforms for live streaming, are also broadcasters. This was all self-interpretation. Since then, the NBTC has not issued any rule or regulation on how to register with it and there is no one really registered with the “over the top” system. Under the NBTC Act, there is not any section that grants the NBTC such power. • On 3 July 2017, the NRSA, through its steering committee on mass communication reform, released a “suggestion report” which recommended a system through which all mobile phones, especially prepaid phones, would need to be registered with the NBTC, using fingerprints and facial scan identification cards all across the country. This became big news online and offline, even though this was only a suggestion report which would not be brought to practice and in fact, such a system was beyond the capabilities of Thailand’s current technology and beyond its legal authority. Most people who were interested in freedom of expression or followed the news would not have enough time to do in-depth research on these matters. What they could do was just follow the hot news. They could not have known if these policies or proposed laws would be enacted in reality and affect their freedom or not. Thus, most people would just remember that the government tried to legislate to regulate online media, to suppress freedom of expression and to access people’s online personal data. However, most of them do not know that those regulations and measures cannot be carried out in reality. The public’s confusion and misunderstanding regarding those measures and the government’s legal authority brought fear to the society, since people do not truly know what the government could and could not do. Self-censorship was the first thing people would do to guarantee their own safety. This climate of fear affects freedom of expression online and we have to say that this has had more effect than enforcing the laws. If the military government really intended to use these social and psychological measures to threaten the people, it was a successful plan. It suppressed freedom of expression without enforcing any laws or arresting any political dissidents, and the NCPO did not have to waste any time on legal processes. THAILAND / 141