Thai authorities have given Facebook a four-day deadline to remove web pages it deems violate Thai laws, including royal defamation, in a new challenge to the social network giant publishing politically sensitive material in countries restricting freedom of speech.
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Authorities have also ordered Thailand's internet providers to block thousands of web pages and content it considers illegal, despite that the UN Human Rights Council has declared access to the internet to be a human right.
Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission says it has identified 131 pages Facebook has failed to remove.
"If even a single illicit page remains we will immediately discuss what legal steps to take against Facebook Thailand," said Takorn Tantasith, the commission's secretary-general.
Thailand's criminal court has ordered almost 7000 "inappropriate" web pages to be shutdown since 2015, according to the country's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.
Hundreds remain on sites accessible in Thailand and authorities moved in April to shutdown online interaction between its citizens and outspoken critics living outside the country.
They announced it was illegal to follow, contact or share Facebook material from Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Centre for South East Asian Studies at Kyoto University, Somak Jeamteerasakul, who is living in exile in France and Scottish journalist and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall.
Mr Marshall, a former Reuters correspondent in Bangkok, is a prolific user of Facebook with thousands of followers.
His site was still assessable in Thailand on Friday.
Facebook has told Thai reporters it has already blocked scores of web pages in Thailand with "inappropriate" content including some containing alleged insults against the royal family, on the orders of the country's courts.
"When we receive such a request, it is scrutinised to determine if the specific content does indeed violate local laws," a Facebook spokesman said.
"If we determine that it does then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted," he said.
Thailand's royal insult or lese majeste laws are among the world's harshest with each offence punishable by up to 15 years jail.
More than 105 lese majeste charges have brought by Thailand's military government since the overthrow of a democratically-elected government in 2014, after months of political instability.
Acquittals in the cases are rare.
Facebook came under fire in Thailand in April when it live-streamed a father strangling to death his 11 month old daughter on the resort island of Phuket.
Facebook kept showing the murder-suicide for 24 hours as the video was seen by 370,000 users, prompting an avalanche of criticism.
Thailand's military has detained hundreds of critics and imposed censorship on the media since seizing power in 2014.
It has promised to allow elections to be held but has not set a date.
Several countries have interfered with or banned access to Facebook, including China, Iran, and North Korea.
