The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry has revised the royal decree on cybercrime prevention and suppression to strengthen law enforcement, adding heftier punishments.
The revised law is expected to become effective in early 2025, said DES Minister Prasert Jantararuangthong.
The revision expedites monetary refunds for victims, especially in cases where mule bank accounts with billions of baht have been suspended or frozen but the contents have not yet been returned to the victims because the legal proceedings have not ended, or are obstructed by outdated laws and regulations.
The amended version also increases the penalty for personal data trading, considering that trading personal data is an act that has a serious impact on the public, the economy, and society at large.
The prison term for those involved as well as the perpetrators has been raised from one year to five years.
The law also prevents illegal money transfers by perpetrators using digital assets, especially illegal platforms for trading and exchanging digital assets abroad, including the transfer of digital assets between individuals related to perpetrators or online thieves.
The law covers suspending or cancelling the use of suspicious SIM cards or communications.
The amendment also increases the responsibility of financial institutions, network service providers, telecommunications service providers, or social media pertaining to damages for victims who have been deceived online.
In a related matter, the ministry has enhanced the capability for blocking illegal URLs and websites through the use of artificial intelligence and the Robotic Process Automation system.
The move is to efficiently handle illegal websites that remain active despite a court order having been issued to close them down, Mr Prasert said.
The latest move helps monitor and block illegal social media and URLs with a result estimated to be 100 times faster than in the past, according to the ministry.
The use of this new system is being carried out by the Technology Innovation Division, which was recently established under the ministry's Office of the Permanent Secretary.
The ministry is working to accelerate the inspection, monitoring and blocking of illegal social media pages and websites, especially those related to online gambling, he said.
Mr Prasert said internet service providers that ignore the measures to block such illegal websites would face fines.
Mr Prasert said the new division has also developed the Thaiweather application to provide more complex data related to meteorological information.
The app provides another channel for the public to follow district-based information on a real-time basis, he said.
The division will cooperate with the Pollution Control Department to aggregate air pollution data in the app, said Mr Prasert.