After block, new Facebook group criticising Thai king gains 500,000 members
- New group formed after the million-member ‘Royalist Marketplace’ group was blocked late on Monday
- Facebook is considering taking legal action against the Thai government
More than half a million users joined a new Facebook group created by a critic of the powerful Thai king after the social media company blocked its predecessor under pressure from the government.
The “Royalist Marketplace” group, which had over 1 million members, was blocked within Thailand late on Monday after the digital ministry threatened legal action against Facebook under the country’s Computer Crime Act.
The tension came amid near daily youth-led protests against the government of a former military junta chief and unprecedented calls for reforms of the monarchy, which is illegal to insult in Thailand.
Hours before the restriction, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a self-exiled academic and prominent critic of the monarchy, set up a new group with a similar name that has gained over half a million members in one day.
“If you want to close it down again, then I’ll set up another group. To promote freedom of expression, I would do it,” Pavin told Reuters.