Thai government arrests woman accused of spreading coronavirus scare stories

Thai government officials on Tuesday (March 3) raided the home of a woman alleged to have spread coronavirus scare stories.Puttipong Punnakan, the country's Digital Economy and Society minister, along with police swooped on the home of Yupares Ngothirach in the capital Bangkok at around 11am local time.The saleswoman allegedly wrote on February 22 on Twitter that ''40 staff'' near her shop had been infected with the deadly covid-19 coronavirus. Yupares tweeted: ''Oh my god. At the shopping mall near my place, there are 40 staff members who were infected from the coronavirus and they are now quarantined.''Puttipong Punnakan, the country's Digital Economy and Society minister, with technology crime police officers raided her apartment in the Huai Khwang district.The digital minister Puttipong Punnakan said: "The woman is believed to have posted claiming that there were people at the mall have been infected from the virus. "She will be prosecuted for spreading fake online news according to the legislation."Police officers from Technology Crime Suppression Division said they identified the alleged fake news spreader from her online profile. Officers handed Yupares a warrant to search the house and seized her mobile phone.A spokesman said: "After we have done the footprint identification for several days, we were assured that the account was Yupares. She will be invited to the cyber security office for further investigation." Yupares said she was using the Twitter app and found one tweet related to the infection of the deadly virus nearby her area.She said: "I just wanted to warn my 7,000 followers about the virus. I did not think it was fake news because I just saw some tweets on my feed and shared it."The digital minister said there is another case in Rayong, eastern Thailand, and will be later led to the TCSD office. He added: "The team is also following other cases and we will reach the person soon. We want to recommend everyone was receives news from the internet to check the facts before sharing it. "