Underboob Selfies Criminalized In Thailand?

Reports have emerged that the government of Thailand has issued a warning on Monday that women posting underboob selfies on the internet may leave themselves open to criminal action.

The warning comes after a plethora of underboob selfies flooding Thailand’s internet. Thailand’s Ministry of Culture announced that the social media trend violates the country’s computer laws.

According to the spokesman of the ministry, Anandha Chouchoti, Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act 2007 prohibits content that causes “damage to the country’s security or causes public panic” or “any obscene computer data which is accessible to the public.”

Despite sounding like an innocuous act, posters of underboob selfies could find themselves behind bars for up to five years. The culture ministry did not say how they would identify the culprits. The Thai government has not revealed how they plan to catch perpetrators.

“When people take these ‘underboob selfies’ no one can see their faces,” ministry spokesman Anandha Chouchoti said. “So it’s like, we don’t know who these belong to, and it encourages others to do the same.

“We can only warn people to not take it up. They are inappropriate actions.”

The warning may come as a surprise to many Westerners because of Thailand’s reputation but, Thailand does have a history of censorship, especially since the military coup of 2006 by the Royal Thai Army.

Since then, Thailand has been placed on Reporters Without Borders’ list of countries Under Surveillance in 2011 and is currently ranked 130th out of 180 countries on its worldwide Press Freedom Index.

Do you believe Thailand can enforce this overzealous prohibition of underboob selfies?

[Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images]