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Thai Legal Services Advise on the Changing Face of Communication Law
The recent Thai law regarding information security, requiring the storage of all internet records for a period of 30 days, was designed to avert some of the more emotive crimes that the internet has given rise to. Pornography, child abuse and other illegal and hate-related sites have all experienced a setback with Thailand's introduction of unprecedented internet monitoring.
However, technology changes faster than the law does. We look at the new technologies which will soon be assessed and tested by the courts, and how Thailand corporate legal services believe businesses should plan for the changes.
Services like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace have revolutionized communications. They first gain popularity among friends for personal use, but their potential as a business tool is quickly noted and developed. The difficult aspect of business use of these technologies is that appropriate policies and laws must be developed to deal with them.
Publishing of corporate information, business advertising, running of competitions and even customer response and service can all be carried out through these channels. They are becoming ever more necessary for business; however, Thai legal services see an increase in legal complexity along with this necessity.
Some of the social networking sites which have the potential to be useful to your business (and therefore the potential to be problematic for your business, also), include:
Facebook, where users can communicate privately or publicly with their contacts, upload photographs and share video and audio. Thai law has not seen these developments, but in Canada there is precedent for requisitioning information from a Facebook profile for examination by a court.
MySpace has become more business oriented than Facebook, as it has evolved. Thailand lawyers have noted an increasing presence of companies and groups on MySpace, as opposed to individuals. The same capabilities that Facebook has are shared by Myspace although it hasn't featured in Thai law courts yet; Myspace messages have been treated as a hybrid between blogging and email by US courts.
Twitter is a free micro-blogging platform, which allows users to share information not exceeding 140 characters in a single message. It is one of the fastest-growing Web 2.0 sites of the past year.
LinkedIn is a popular professional site, where users can upload their resume, work experience and send messages. It works on the same principles as business networking.
Thailand legal services see this as one of the areas of Thai law set for major changes over the next few years. They are recommending that companies prepare for legal eventualities now, rather than waiting for a situation to force their hand. The first step in preparation is understanding how your company uses Web 2.0 (User generated) sites and technologies.
Is it used for customer contact, for advertising and promotion, for holding competitions, or for publishing information? Analyze which employees need to have access to these sites for business purposes, and consider blocking access to them for employees who don't need it.
Law firms in Thailand also want their clients to understand that what is put on the internet is not invisible, and is subject to the same Thai laws and regulations that any other published material, advertising, or competitions are. Companies may wish to look into data capture of published material, in order to properly monitor and respond to misuse of the technologies.
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