PHUKET: About 30 million people with Facebook accounts in Thailand were unable to use their accounts this afternoon, officials connected with the coup command confirmed today.
''Someone tried to use the social network to post comments against the coup,'' one official said.
The site disappeared in Thailand about 3.30pm and did not return for use until more than an hour later.
However, there were conflicting reports about whether the loss was because of an official blockage or a coincidental technical difficulty.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) reported on Twitter: ''Facebook has been blocked 'temporarily' in Thailand - ICT permanent secretary (info from twitter.)
A spokesperson for the The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said about 4.30pm: ''We confirm we do not have a policy to close the Facebook system.
''We have asked ICT [the Ministry of information and Communication Technology] to check the problem out.
''It was a 'bad gateway' issue. Right now, the problem is still being fixed.''
Facebook appeared to be stable and remained accessible after 5pm.
''How could I live without Facebook excitement,'' said one Thai user when the site's access was restored.
Earlier, according to the Reuters news agency: Thailand's information technology ministry blocked Facebook on Wednesday and planned to hold talks with other social networking sites to stem protests against the military government, a senior official said.
''We have blocked Facebook temporarily and tomorrow we will call a meeting with other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, to ask for cooperation from them,'' Surachai Srisaracam, permanent secretary of the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, told Reuters.
''Right now there's a campaign to ask for people to stage protests against the army so we need to ask for cooperation from social media to help us stop the spread of critical messages about the coup,'' he said.
Confused? Facebook users in Thailand certainly were.
Any move to officially block Facebook would be likely to cost the military some of the sympathy it retains among residents in Thailand and from people outside the country.
Most people view Facebook as a relatively harmless site where most of the posts are polite and hardly likely to incite any kind of reaction.
Some of the Facebook sites have commercial application and businesses often prefer their customers to access them via Facebook rather than online, through an Internet site.
Technically, any blockage can easily be skirted by provision of a Virtual Private Network, which uses a proxy in another country instead of going directly to Facebook.
The proxy enables people to access sites that might otherwise be hard to access - for example, some sites are limited to people who live in the US. The VPN workaround comes at a small fee.
''Someone tried to use the social network to post comments against the coup,'' one official said.
The site disappeared in Thailand about 3.30pm and did not return for use until more than an hour later.
However, there were conflicting reports about whether the loss was because of an official blockage or a coincidental technical difficulty.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) reported on Twitter: ''Facebook has been blocked 'temporarily' in Thailand - ICT permanent secretary (info from twitter.)
A spokesperson for the The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said about 4.30pm: ''We confirm we do not have a policy to close the Facebook system.
''We have asked ICT [the Ministry of information and Communication Technology] to check the problem out.
''It was a 'bad gateway' issue. Right now, the problem is still being fixed.''
Facebook appeared to be stable and remained accessible after 5pm.
''How could I live without Facebook excitement,'' said one Thai user when the site's access was restored.
Earlier, according to the Reuters news agency: Thailand's information technology ministry blocked Facebook on Wednesday and planned to hold talks with other social networking sites to stem protests against the military government, a senior official said.
''We have blocked Facebook temporarily and tomorrow we will call a meeting with other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, to ask for cooperation from them,'' Surachai Srisaracam, permanent secretary of the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, told Reuters.
''Right now there's a campaign to ask for people to stage protests against the army so we need to ask for cooperation from social media to help us stop the spread of critical messages about the coup,'' he said.
Confused? Facebook users in Thailand certainly were.
Any move to officially block Facebook would be likely to cost the military some of the sympathy it retains among residents in Thailand and from people outside the country.
Most people view Facebook as a relatively harmless site where most of the posts are polite and hardly likely to incite any kind of reaction.
Some of the Facebook sites have commercial application and businesses often prefer their customers to access them via Facebook rather than online, through an Internet site.
Technically, any blockage can easily be skirted by provision of a Virtual Private Network, which uses a proxy in another country instead of going directly to Facebook.
The proxy enables people to access sites that might otherwise be hard to access - for example, some sites are limited to people who live in the US. The VPN workaround comes at a small fee.
