Thailand poised to open ‘fake news’ monitoring hub

Thailand is set to open its first centre to combat fake news, a minister said yesterday, the latest Asian country to push for greater cyber scrutiny in what activists fear is a smokescreen for targeting critics.

The Anti-Fake News Center will start work on Friday using AI and trained monitors to flag posts on everything from healthcare to government policies, digital economy and society minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta told AFP.

“Every country faces the issue of fake news... especially Thai people,” Buddhipongse said, after explaining the initiative to prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha.

Prayut took power in a 2014 coup, muzzling dissent for several years with special laws, but became civilian premier after tainted polls in March.