Skip to main content

Google takes down maps targeting hundreds of Thais accused of opposing king

 Google took down two Google Maps documents on Monday that had listed the names and addresses of hundreds of Thai activists who were accused by royalists of opposing the monarchy

Google Maps

SINGAPORE/BANGKOK (Reuters) – Google took down two Google Maps documents on Monday that had listed the names and addresses of hundreds of Thai activists who were accused by royalists of opposing the monarchy, the technology company said. Thai royalist activist Songklod “Pukem” Chuenchoopol told Reuters he and a team of 80 volunteers had created the maps and planned to report everyone named on them to police on accusations of insulting the monarchy.

A spokesperson for Alphabet’s Google said by email “the issue is now fixed”, and noted: “We have clear policies about what’s acceptable for user generated My Maps content. We remove user generated maps that violate our policies.” A version of one of the maps seen by Reuters included the names and addresses of nearly 500 people, many of them students, together with their photos in university or high school uniforms. It had received over 350,000 views.

The faces of those named had been covered by black squares with the number 112, in reference to the article under the country’s criminal code which makes insulting or defaming the monarchy punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Neither map could be accessed when Reuters tried to open them late on Monday. Songklod said that he and the team of volunteers sought to highlight those they accused of breaking that law. “When each of us sees something offensive posted on social media, we put it on the map,” he said. Describing it as a “psychological” warfare operation, Songklod said the aim was to dissuade people from online criticism of the monarchy…Read More


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Balesh Sharma, who will be the CEO of Vodafone-Idea merged entity

United Kingdom-based Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group have appointed Balesh Sharma as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the merged entity to be created as the local units of the two telecom majors come together for the India market. The appointment of Sharma has not come as a surprise to Vodafone employees, who have seen him taking control of the day-to-day functions of the company over the past year as its chief operating officer (COO). According to several employees of the company, over the past year or so, Sharma was the man responsible for running the company, with Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood taking a backseat for routine activities. When everybody was guessing about the CEO of the new entity, there were a few people in Vodafone who were sure about Sharma taking the reins of the new company. Sharma, having worked in different positions for over 25 years, has been a Vodafone veteran.He was specially called to India in April 2017 as COO from the Czech Republic. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Unconventional Workout and Sporting Activities for Summer

In summers, depending upon conditions and circumstances one can incorporate both outdoor  and indoor activities in their training schedule.   Summer is the season of holidays, picnics, outings and beaches. With travel and binge eating proper workout becomes that much more essential in summers. But with heat and the sun outdoors, an individual has to balance his indoor and outdoor activities to get a fulfilling workout. In summers, depending upon conditions and circumstances one can incorporate both outdoor and indoor activities in their training schedule. Mentioned below are some of the best physical and sporting activities that one can use as a workout to stay fit in the summer season. Beach Sports - If in summers one is going to spend much time on beaches or at a beach destination then one may use beach sporting activities such as beach rugby, beach soccer, beach tennis and beach volleyball to stay fit. All of these sporting activities on sand provide a ...
Post a Comment
Read more