Thailand proposed technology companies create centers in all 10 Southeast Asian countries in order to stop the spread of "fake news" and the use of fake accounts on Monday, according to The Bangkok Post.
The centers would also work for governments to flag misinformation easily to providers of over-the-top (OTT) service - any digital service done through the internet, including social media - so that they could comply by taking it down faster, according to Reuters.
“Thailand has proposed that OTT companies set up a center to verify news,” said Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
“We asked if it was possible that the companies authorize each country to oversee such centers and in so doing co-operate directly with them,” Takorn said.
A poll conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration found a majority of Thais supported the plan to establish anti-fake news centers to handle misinformation.
More than 77 percent of the respondents said they used online media, including websites, social media, and email, and 61 percent of those respondents said they never believed fake news reports, 27 percent said they had, and 11 percent said they were unsure if they did believe fake news reports.
Takorn said the tech companies would also be financing the operations.
Telecommunications regulators from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Bangkok later this week to establish regional guidelines to regulate OTT platforms, including policies on taxation.
Monday's meeting included representatives from Facebook, messaging app operator Line Corp, Amazon, and Netflix.
He also said the “coordination and verification centers” would support a plan from the new digital minister of Thailand to prioritize fighting fae-news and regulate content on websites and social media.
Digital Minister Puttipong Punnakanta posted on Facebook last month he was planning for “fake news center’s” to take down online content from child pornography to insults against the country’s monarchy, in addition to tackling “fake news” and “fake accounts."
He also said he “volunteered to purge content hurtful to Thais. Digital media should be clean."
Other governments have also prioritized fighting fake news in recent years, including Singapore which passed an anti-fake news bill in May which requires tech firms to correct or remove content the government considers false.
Vietnam passed a new cybersecurity law last year which included a provision that banned posting anti-government information online, which officials said would guard against fake news.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Rahmat Gul
