The social giant Facebook temporarily shuts down all of its ads in Thailand to honor the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. This is the first time Facebook decided to block its ads to a whole country.
"Out of respect for the passing of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, we're temporarily not showing ads in Thailand," wrote the company in a post on its ads help page.
Facebook's decision however doesn't apply to advertisers in Thailand as they can still show their ads to other countries.
Thailand is one of the significant markets for Facebook, and it's the home for many of its most engaged users. When the company opened its office in Thailand on 2015, COO Sheryl Sandberg noted that users in Thailand tend to post three times more often that the average global users. At the time, an estimated 37 million people in Thailand were using Facebook.
Furthermore, Facebook's ads are also well-received in Thailand.
After the death of the King, the royal palace sets to fly the national flag at half staff for 30 days, starting Friday. Entering a year-long period of mourning, civil servants have been ordered to wear black attire for a year to respect the King. Additionally, media companies are also paying their respects with alterations to televised programming by refrain from broadcasting "entertainment and overly emotional content" for 30 days at the behest of Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. Thailand's English-language broadsheet newspaper The Bangkok Post has applied a black-and-white design to its website.
King Adulyadej was the world's longest-serving monarch with over 70 years reigning the throne.
