Man Faces 32 Years in Prison For ‘Liking’ a Post on Facebook

December 12, 2015

There have been many stories of people getting in trouble for using Facebook, but this one takes the cake for being a bit ridiculous.

In Thailand, a man is facing 32 years of prison for clicking the “like” button on a photoshopped photo the King of Thailand and sharing an infographic about a scandal involving dodgy dealings for a park funding.

Local authorities say that factory worker Thanakorn Siripaiboon was charged with sedition, treason and cyber crimes. Siripaiboon confessed to the charges and will be put behind bars for a very long time.

AFP reports that the 27-year old offender clicked “like” on December 2 on a doctored photo of the King and shared it with 608 friends. Doing so is illegal under Thai law as anyone guilty of insulting the King, or any part of the royal family can be charged up to 15 years in jail on each count.

Siripaiboon is a member of the Red-Shirt Facebook group which is known to oppose the government. This group is where he shared an infographic about Rajabhakti Park, the controversial tourist attraction built by the army under construction contracts. Opposition groups say that the park is being handled suspiciously with allegations of inflated costs and questionable dealings.

Colonel Burin of the local military says that Siripaiboon is guilty of sedition: “He admitted that he posted the infographic of Rajabhakti Park to incite members of the group.”

A similar instance happened a month ago when a Thai woman surrendered herself to the local authorities and was charged with sedition for sharing the same Facebook infographic about the park scandal. Her case is still being investigated by the police.

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