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https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/12/12/thailand-launches-anti-fake-news-center-crack-down-critics/

Thailand Launches ‘Anti Fake News Center’ to Crack Down on Critics

Thailand’s new “Anti Fake News Center” concluded its first month of operations this week, to catcalls from critics who found its work product shoddy and primarily focused on suppressing criticism of the government.

Human Rights Watch researcher Sunai Phasuk bluntly compared it to the “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984.

Phasuk described operations like the Anti Fake News Center as “a hallmark of authoritarian regimes” and an effort to intimidate the Thai people by reminding them the state can “look into everything and everyone online and monitor their comments.”

Phasuk, a persistent critic of both the Thai military junta – whose idea of “transitioning to civilian rule” involved installing the leader of the junta as the “civilian ruler” with elections in May – and the rise of “fake news” laws across Asia, was quoted by Coconuts Bangkok in a review that trounced the Thai Anti Fake News Center as a ramshackle operation with a crude website, loads of cut-and-paste articles about non-political health and consumer products issues, and a few bits of original reporting on political issues that tend to strongly favor the government. Amusingly, calls to the Center’s posted hotline numbers occasionally connect to anonymous bureaucrats who did not realize they were listed as contacts on the website.