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Facebook Plans to Sue Thais over Order To Mute Critics
Platform restricts access to group calling for change to the role of the monarchy By Hannah Beech August 26, 2020 
Facebook has said it is planning legal
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for ordering the social media platform
to partially shut down access to a group
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On Monday, Facebook began preventing
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Royalist Marketplace, a Facebook group
with more than a million members that
was set up by a VHOIH[LOHG7KDLDFDGHPLF OLYLQJLQ-DSDQ. 3
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family. Other legislation, including a
ODZand have a chilling effect on people’s
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ability to express themselves,” Facebook
have also been used to target critics of the
said in a statement. “We work to protect
royal family, as protesters have taken to
and defend the rights of all internet users
the streets in recent weeks to call for the
and are preparing to legally challenge this
monarchy’s power to be curbed. request.” 4
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Facebook has come under criticism for
digital economy and society minister,
allowing hate speech and misinformation
warned this month that Facebook would
to circulate worldwide, as well as for
be breaking the computer crimes act if it
handing authoritarian governments a tool
allowed Royalist Marketplace, which was
with which to target their critics.
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reforms and more oversight of King 5
Facebook condemned the government’s
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varangkun. Members of the urban middle
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class have been drawn to the demonstrations,
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 (YHQDVKHKDVVWD\HGDZD\IURPKRPH reforms to the monarchy.
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his personal authority over the crown’s 9
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billions of dollars in holdings and over
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army units that have been instrumental in
after orchestrating a military coup that he
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said was necessary WR SURWHFW WKH SDODFH
have cast aside civilian governments IURPQD\VD\HUV.
since the country became a constitutional monarchy.
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periodically blocked online content deemed GLFWDWRUVKLSSRZHUV.”
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forced to undergo indoctrination sessions
against other countries’ laws.” run out of military bases.
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international norms on freedom of speech.
arrested on charges of sedition and other
crimes, with the latest round of arrests
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laws to force Facebook to restrict content
that is protected by the human right to
 Last week, the Ministry of Digital
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advocacy director at Human Rights Watch,
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the academic who is the administrator of the
breaking the law here, international law
Royalist Marketplace group on Facebook.
protecting freedom of expression.”
 For years, Mr. Pavin had been a rare
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22 On Monday evening, after access to
Royalist Marketplace was restricted by
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Facebook, Mr. Pavin created a new group
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is facing its worst economic contraction in
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decades amid the coronavirus pandemic.
reached nearly half a million members.
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does the presumed heir, Prince Dipangkorn
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…………………………………………………………………………………………… b. a sedition law
……………………………………………………………………………………………
c. contravene international human rights law
……………………………………………………………………………………………
d. to protect the palace from naysayers
…………………………………………………………………………………………… e. dictatorship powers
……………………………………………………………………………………………
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d. What have critics questioned their King?
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Does That App Really Need To Know Where You Are?
Is TikTok, the Chinese-owned social network that is used mostly by teenagers to post
dance videos, a national security threat?
By Brian X. Chen September 14, 2020 
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threatened to ban the app in the United States. 
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to draw conclusions. While there is no direct
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malicious with people’s data, sharing
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information could be fundamentally less
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by Disconnect was obsolete and that it had 5
Disconnect, a San Francisco security
updated its app as part of a continuing effort
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to eliminate unused features. “We have not
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nor would we if asked,” the company said
Disconnect reviewed the app’s latest version in a statement.
and saw that the lines of code referring to
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published a blog post titled “Providing
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peace of mind” and said it was working on
not witness any data transmission by the
“efforts around cleaning up inactive code
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in the app to reduce potential confusion or
the existence and subsequent removal of misconceptions.” the code suspicious.
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doing something nefarious, there is a
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did not alarm him. Plenty of apps have
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legitimate reasons for relying on some
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apps that we love permanent access to
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information about ourselves. So the debate
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sensors – meaning it always has permission
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to get information like our location and
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denying requests to our personal data.
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granted it permanent access to my phone’s
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used the app to scroll through people’s
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cooking videos and have posted only two
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asking for permission for access sensors
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and data such as your camera, photo
disabled access to those sensors.
album, location and address book. When
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Does this app need access to my data or
it may be worth putting up with some
sensor for it to work properly? Does the
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app need access to this sensor or data all
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its app, do some research on the business. company with my data?
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what’s happening with your data and what
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out where you are and give directions.
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revenue, you can usually assume that your
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data is part of the transaction.
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nearby gas stations with the lowest prices,
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asks for permission to know your location.
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You could allow it to pull your device’s
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so many people. Once the horse is out of the
so it has less precise information about
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