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The Human Rights Law’s Safeguard Principles for analyzing

laws restricting freedom of speech according to the Computer related
Crime Act B.E. 2550 as amended B.E. 2560

Associate Professor Kanathip Thongraweewong *

Abstract
The Computer related Crime Act B.E. 2550 as amended in B.E. 2560 consists

of two group of provisions which have negative effect on freedom of speech. The first group
is criminal offences for a person importing or distributing illegal content (Section 14-16).

The second group is measures for blocking illegal content which can be implemented
by service provider (Section 15) or court order (section 20). From human rights perspective,
freedom of speech could be restricted as proscribed by “law”. However, the quality of law

or safeguard principles have to be applied to evaluate such law for ensuring balance between
the control of illegal content for protecting certain interests such as national security

and the protection of freedom of speech. This article analyzes the safeguard principles
from international human rights laws, foreign laws and court cases and synthesized into 9
criteria for applying to evaluate provisions in the Computer related Crime Act which restrict

the freedom of speech. The results indicate both tendency of consistent and inconsistent
of such provisions to the safeguard principles. The application of the 9 criteria could be
extended to analyze other laws which restrict freedom of speech in digital era.

Keywords: freedom of speech, illegal content, unlawful content, website blocking,
safeguard measure, the Computer related Crime Act

* Associate Professor Kanathip Thongraweewong, Faculty of Law and Director of Digital
Media Law Institution, Kasem Bundit University and the Expert on Civil Rights, Office of the National
Human Rights Commission