Innovation of retrieval system to investigate censorship in online social media

Abstract

Provision of intermediary liability in computer crime law in Thailand has induced online service providers to control illegal content including content that is deemed harmful or problematic excessively. The constructed Innovative Retrieval System (IRS) had investigated four forums in the most popular social media forum in Thailand, Pantip.com, and found that excessive censorship or overblocking in the website is prevalent. There is no consistency of censorship pattern among forums. The censorship criteria depend mostly on type of content in each forum and the judgment of website administrator. The result of IRS investigation also found that overblocking rate in each forum is quite high. Over 70% of all content removed were not illegal. They were all removed because online service providers are fear of three factors: intimidation of governmental agencies, threat of lawsuits from business organizations, and fear of intermediary liability. Even if such censorship flaw both infringes users’ freedom of expression and impedes the social media business, website administrator admitted that it would worth it to cut off some users to avoid troubles. Therefore, government interference and intermediary liability provision in computer crime law are likely to be main obstacles threatening not only ingenious communication of the public, but also Internet business, innovation, and economic growth. The investment and growth in the Internet industry in Thailand would be deterred as long as these obstacles remain.