Thailand asks Facebook to delete 'offensive' content

(...) "We have informed Facebook and sought their assistance in deleting content which is offensive to our monarchy," the country's information minister Anudith Nakornthap told AFP.

"There are more than 10,000 URLs which seem to insult the monarchy," he said, adding that people should not click "Like" or comment on "offensive" posts as this would be considered indirect dissemination of the material.

Under Thai law, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent can face a prison sentence of up to 15 years for each offence. Even repeating details of an alleged offence is illegal.

In the last few weeks, a number of pro-monarchy Facebook pages have appeared, including one encouraging users to flag content which could be in violation of lese-majeste laws.