Thai officials said today, Saturday, that the government aims to intensify efforts to censor the Internet by requesting help from news sites, a day after a lawsuit was filed against social media platforms.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society said in a statement today that the Thai authorities will ask news sites to help prevent the spread of false or illegal information because people trust them and have the ability to quickly broadcast the correct information.

The statement comes after the ministry, on Thursday, directed legal charges against giant social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for not complying with its requests to delete certain links.

The ministry said the online platforms have been charged under Thailand´s computer crime law and could face a fine of up to 200,000 baht ($ 6,337).

The ministry added that the links include materials related to drugs, pornography, gambling, and defamatory comments about the monarchy, a subject that has been prohibited and has become the subject of a growing anti-government movement.

The ministry also indicted five prominent members of a major political rally in Bangkok targeting the monarchy over the weekend.

The protest leaders were accused of slandering the monarchy and causing unrest in the country.