Prawit urges governors to protect King

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon on Friday urged provincial governors across the country to help protect the monarchy and prevent fake news.

During a video conference with Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda and the governors, the deputy PM also told them to promote the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.

The deputy premier was chairing a policy meeting ahead of the 2021 fiscal year during which tackling illegal drugs, human trafficking and the ailing economy were also discussed.

Regarding the government's anti-fake news policy, the deputy PM advised provincial governors to seek the government's support in pursuing the publishers and informing the public about the correct information.

In a separate development, the Twitter accounts of the anti-government Free Youth group (@FreeYOUTHthand) and Tattep "Ford" Ruangprapaikijseree (@fordtattepRuang), the group's secretary-general, were not available for over an hour on Friday afternoon.

The group rebutted a media report quoting Twitter Thailand as saying the accounts were suspended for violating its Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy and instead blamed government-backed accounts for reporting them.

Soon after the two accounts were restored, the number of followers of the Free Youth group jumped from 227,000 followers to in excess of 234,000 in less than 20 minutes.

Free Youth's Twitter account is believed to have played an important role in the anti-government protests this year.

The group recently announced that it will rally at Democracy Monument at 4pm on Sunday and begin a campaign urging members of the public to write to His Majesty the King to accompany their demands for the resignation of the prime minister, a charter rewrite and reform of the monarchy.