Row over ‘blocked’ Facebook in Thailand

Bangkok: Facebook users in couprattled Thailand reacted with alarm on Wednesday when they were suddenly unable to access the social networking site, but the junta quickly denied imposing a block.

“Urgent: Facebook has been suspended,” one user wrote on Twitter. “Surely that would be suicide. Whole country would protest,” wrote another.

But just minutes later users celebrated: “Facebook is back!!” The military regime which seized power on May 22 said it had not pulled the plug on the site.
“We have not ordered a block of Facebook — it’s not our policy,” said army spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree.

“Facebook experienced a slight technical failure and the ministry of information and communication Technology is working to fix it now,” he said. In the sign of the power of social media in the digital era, the junta even interrupted normal television broadcasts to reassure the nation that Facebook was not under siege.

Surachai Srisaracam, permanent secretary at the ICT ministry, said reports quoting him as confirming a Facebook block were “all a misunderstanding”. Meanwhile, the junta on Wednesday freed leaders of the “Red Shirt” movement allied to the civilian government ousted in a recent coup, after holding them without charge for nearly a week.

Key members of the protest group walked out of an army facility in Bangkok.