Thailand orders Facebook to remove posts about king News
Thailand orders Facebook to remove posts about king

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission [official website] of Thailand on Thursday ordered Facebook Thailand [official website] to remove a video of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and other posts by Tuesday or face legal action. The video claims to show the king in casual dress showing his tattoos and walking with a woman. The video was deemed illicit by the NBTC and ordered removed [Bangkok Post reports] from the social media site. Facebook has said[VICE report] it plans to comply with the request.

Free speech rights around the globe are still contested. Chinese human rights lawyers Xie Yang and Li Heping were released [JURIST report] from prison Tuesday after being detained for nearly two years on charges of attempting to subvert the country’s ruling Communist Party. Ireland Health Minister Simon Harris said [JURIST report] Monday that the country’s blasphemy laws were “embarrassing” and called for their repeal. A Tunisian court sentenced [JURIST report] British DJ Dax J to a year in prison in April for public indecency and offending public morality after the artist played a remix of the Muslim call to prayer in a nightclu

THIS DAY @ LAW

No lynchings reported in US for first time

On December 30, 1952, the Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year of no lynchings of African Americans in the United States in the 71 years it had kept records. Learn more about lynching and listen to Billie Holiday's jazz recording of the 1938 protest song Strange Fruit.

USSR established

On December 30, 1922, representatives of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Transcaucus approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During World War II, the USSR would also annex Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova. Learn more about the history of the USSR from the BBC.