New Luxury Tax On Internet Usage In Thailand

[dr_Pat_Pong]

[arthsch]

taxes for internet-users?

this must be an 1. april-joke!

and a bad one!

april-jokes should be friendly - the writer of this one is a bad man! not honest! he should eat his own shit!

[arthsch]

one of the stupidest april-jokes, i ever heard!

[Wolfie]

taxes for internet-users?

this must be an 1. april-joke!

and a bad one!

april-jokes should be friendly - the writer of this one is a bad man! not honest! he should eat his own shit!

theres one born every minute :D

[cdnvic]

taxes for internet-users?

this must be an 1. april-joke!

and a bad one!

april-jokes should be friendly - the writer of this one is a bad man! not honest! he should eat his own shit!

one of the stupidest april-jokes, i ever heard!

That has got to be the funniest two posts I've seen here all year.

Edited April 3, 2007 by cdnvic

[Scott]

The scary thing here is it is so difficult to tell the difference between a joke and reality! Sometimes it scares me, although right from the beginning I thought this one was suspect--like they would have dongles already available!!

All that said, it was a good one! I always stay home and away from people on April 1, now I can't even use the computer!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

The scary thing here is it is so difficult to tell the difference between a joke and reality! Sometimes it scares me, although right from the beginning I thought this one was suspect--like they would have dongles already available!!

All that said, it was a good one! I always stay home and away from people on April 1, now I can't even use the computer!

but you can nip down to the nearest 7 / 11

[roy deacon]

Well done very clever a lot of work went into it.A great april fool.Some of the comments were very funny.The only dongles were anyone who believed this lol.And if anybody did go into 7/11 and ask for a dongle I bet that lady boy could not believe his luck

[robint]

april fool

it was posted on the 1/4/07

got you all

[Night]

I went this morning to pay my CAT adsl bill only to find the tax increased from 17% for foreigners to 250%.

I nearly craapped my pants and i was thinking please let it be april first or something but its not.

Not only that but i am bing back taxed a year so made the excuse of going to an atm. just got my ticket back to farangland or white n word land as its known by the officials.

Incedently the single ticket back cost less than the back tax.

I've learnt a thing or two from the locals about paying too much tax. by the way i paid 38 baht for house tax recently in the tax office as it is a thai owned house after the china landlord wanted me to pay 5,000 baht for the said tax but i kindly offered to go pay it myself. it's usually more than 10,000 for foreigners with the company so i guess the landlord wasn't being greedy trying to screw me for 10,000% of the price rather than 20,000%. At least one can be glad for the small mercies. best ignore the zenophobia.

Enjoy whats left of your stay in whats left of the Los.

[johwel]

This really got me, as my connection got unstable reading the forum. I didn't take track of the date, but the satelite which has to move closer to earth and at the same time stay above Singapore, gave it all away.

But wouldn't the dongles have flashy LED's and be readily available at Pantip?

[Noodles]

Got Me.....I was 2 pages into this thread before the penny dropped.

Nice one

[Kan Win]

Hi Noodles,

Nice to have you posting once again.

Back to the topic in hand, your best one was a few years back “ThaiVisaDotCom”, shame really that someone had to spoil it too soon.

Thank you, great work.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

P.S. and still available @ your nearest 7 / 11 dongles that is

[zerovector]

I have been so confused since all this and only now got a chance to reply to this myself... As soon as I learned about this new tinternet tax. I sent my girlfriend down to the local 7 11 and she knowing so much about the tinternet as I do asked for one of those finest danggling dingdongle thingys or was it a ding dong thing..

Any way she got one and our tinternet does not disconnect after 6 minutes any more and our relationship has taken a shift into overdrive ever since.. Thanks Thai Tinternet service your the best! lol lol

Edited April 3, 2007 by zerovector

[distortedlink]

Great news.

The Internet service here is wonderful. I honestly don’t think the new tax amount is adequate for this type of Internet.

I would willingly pay 40000 baht a month, for what I think is a more realistic price that reflects the high quality service we receive and have come to enjoy every month.

Now I can legitimately view all the porn sites, download torrents. Never could find any use for banking web sites and all that educational crap

[aaaaaa]

I must admit, this post by George has got me at first read, in fact infuriated me very much.

good Arpil Fool joke !

however I think the reason it was and still is good, as evident from many posts by others in this thread, who's sincerely bought it - because there is definetely ground for worries. internet censorship is real and admitted fact, covered by Thai media.

The most frightening thing is that it could have been true .... totally unworkable .... but it could have been true .....

Exactly right.

On reading it I'm thinking "this has to be wrong, must be a joke" .... but then ..... what if it isn't.

With other recent developments it is not completely outside the realms of possibility.

Very scary

well, it could have possibly been:

the following are only 3 articles, and they were published not by George on Thaivisa, and not on April 1 - but on The Nation website at least several months old.

Internet answers demand for news

Thu, September 21, 2006

With television and radio in military hands after last night's coup, the Internet newspapers seem the only way to keep abreast of the situation.

Domestic and international news sites such as the Thai News Agency and CNN have been popular among surfers.

Websites such as the government's www.thaigov.go.th and the Government Public Relations Department site were so busy servers temporarily crashed.

After midnight www.pantip.com's political message board was overwhelmed by those seeking to voice opinions.

Many were harsh in their dissatisfaction with the Administrative Reform Council for depriving people of their rights and damaging the economy. Some demanded a return to democracy. By morning access to the board had been terminated.

Its webmasters apologised to surfers and said the ban was out of their control.

There were rumours last night that all Internet access would soon be closed down.

next article is about 2 monhts old:

ONLINE CENSORSHIP'Come clean on Internet interference'

Sun, February 11, 2007

Pressure group FACT challenges the ICT Ministry to explain why it is blocking certain websites

Pressure against Internet censorship is mounting, and members of Freedom Against Censorship in Thailand (FACT) have asked the information and communications technology minister to come clean on blackouts.

The group asserted that since the September 19 coup Internet censorship had increased 500 per cent. There are now 13,435 blocked websites.

"The [ministry] blacklist and all other information relating to censorship is covered by a veil of secrecy," the group said.

"FACT believes taxpayers have a right to know what goes on at every level of government. FACT believes the blacklist should be made public."

Media-reform campaigner Supinya Klangnarong and Canadian-born Bangkok-based C J Hinke are leading members.

The complaint to minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom was signed by 257 activists and 56 organisations opposing censorship from 19 countries.

It demands answers to 20 questions about Internet censorship. FACT maintains no law in Thailand sanctions censorship. "Web censorship is being done illegally," it insists.

FACT is seeking criteria employed in deciding if a site will be blocked.

The group made a submission to the National Human Rights Commission on November 15. FACT asserts the ministry "has consistently refused to cooperate" with commission requests for clarification.

"It's high time to lift up the rock under which bureaucrats at this maverick agency have long been hiding. It's time to end censorship in Thailand and pursue democracy," the group said in a statement.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

and this one is more recent, not yet even 1 month old:

Thailand's Internet governance is a mess

Fri, March 16, 2007

The state of Internet governance today in Thailand is in confusion. Online stakeholders, in government, private and civil society do not know what they are doing.

Worse, they do not understand what is really going on in the cyber world. They all pursue their own agendas, thinking positively that they are indeed contributing to Internet openness and freedom of expression....

Despite all the ills in cyber space, online users blame the current government, the Ministry of Information and Technology and the Royal Thai Police for whatever problems they encounter, especially websites that have been blocked by the authorities since the September 19 coup. Public expectation was high that the interim government would promote freedom of expression and press freedom...

Representatives from the government including the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology were very candid, admitting the government has done filtering in the past, but only minimally. Maneerat Plipat, deputy permanent secretary, was sanguine, saying the ministry blocked less than 2,000 websites, mainly those that were pornographic or anti-monarchy. But civil society watchdog organisations argued that the number of blocked websites ran into the several thousands...

It is interesting to note that Thailand does not have any Internet laws in the truest sense. So any legal action taken against any website has to be done under various criminal laws instead....

At the moment, a proposed bill on cyber crimes is pending consideration in the House of Representatives. It will be vetted and passed in the next few weeks. Civil society and freedom of expression advocates were not happy with the draft because it gives too much power to the authorities to shut down sites considered detrimental to national security. They want to see court sanctions...

Kavi Chongkittavorn

The Nation

guys up there scratches their heads, and said:

Hmmm, no any law on Internet censorship? well, that is easy to correct. Let there be such a law! after all, why not make it?

so, dongle or not (or whatever - dingle, jingle ....) - it is not even necessary to control the Internet. it can easily be done without any devices attached to each and every PC.

oh, and here is the VERY fresh news, in fact Today:

YouTube blocked because of clip 'offensive to monarchy'

Thu, April 5, 2007

Internet users in Thailand have been denied access to one of the world's most popular websites following claims it contained material offensive to the monarchy.

Local Web surfers can no longer access the YouTube site. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry said it had blocked the site because it contained a film clip deemed offensive to the monarchy.

The ministry was forced to block access to the entire site after failing to restrict just the alleged item.

YouTube lets users across the world post their own videos or films. It has become one of the Web's most popular sites.

ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said the government had approached the site owner, Google. However, the company said it had no policy about content deemed offensive in this country.

Sitthichai said Thailand considered the matter important and felt compelled to bar the site.

Access will be resumed when the allegedly offensive item is withdrawn.

He said jurisdictional and other legal complexities hindered legal action against the site and the content provider.

CAT Telecom executive Kitisak Sriprasert said it responded immediately after the ministry asked it to block access to YouTube.

The move was a short-term solution, he said.

"Offensive to monarchy" can easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and such label can be stuck to practically anything which critisizes present government. because anyone can upload there whatever videos, say, Non-censored news about political protests in Thailand, or by/ about people like Thaksin who are abroad.

I don't know about that clip, however I couldn't watch anything on YouTube already quite for a while. perhaps CAT Telecome has been blocking it already for a long time and ahs admitted this fact only now?

[sriracha john]

I must admit, this post by George has got me at first read, in fact infuriated me very much.

good Arpil Fool joke !

however I think the reason it was and still is good......................

"Offensive to monarchy" can easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and such label can be stuck to practically anything which critisizes present government. because anyone can upload there whatever videos, say, Non-censored news about political protests in Thailand, or by/ about people like Thaksin who are abroad.

I don't know about that clip, however I couldn't watch anything on YouTube already quite for a while. perhaps CAT Telecome has been blocking it already for a long time and ahs admitted this fact only now?

Well, I understand since you're 4 days late on the April Fools joke that can explain why you've missed the 235-post, 6,800-viewed thread on the blocked Youtube website:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...=114443&hl=

and btw, there's no reason to "intepret the offense" as it was plainly Extremely Offensive to around 63 million Thais... and who most likely nearly all fully supported the blocking...

I hope this all gets you up to speed on the going-ons in Thailand...

(ya gotta change out of that robe and leave the apartment more often)

[Bruce1]

The reason it initially fooled so many of us is the way things are nowdays it could easily be true.

BTW, being currently in Brisbane I read the offensive Youtube thing and, believe me, you're not missing anything! There are also at least 12 entries pro-king on you tube under News and Politics, incidentally.

[yoshiwara]

apparently it is not advised to use the 7-11 dongle with windows vista or windows xp as it opens up a serious security port that broadcasts user history to outside viewers...immigration officials have denied that this has anything to do with them but a crackdown on undesirable farang has been predicted to happen over the summer as the election campaign gets into full-swing. better to download an older version of windows to escape the risks. not sure yet what is happening with apple users.

[tracer]

sounds like an interesting post and no doubt they would be used to check if they managed to make that many working dongles..... and supply them free.

As Cat cannot even make enough of their airwave cards which they sell expensive and are out of date and run low speed anyway, I can see them going to make multi coulour dongles which likely donot work on all systems(g). Whatever as the date of the post is April 1st....

[dong]

I was so concerned about this new imposition on farang that I rushed straight down to my local 7-11. I asked the young chap behind the counter if I could check out his dongle. We are meeting tonight for drinks.

Hey must have gone to the same 7/11 store

my Thai wife went down and asked to see if she could see his dongle and was told he already had a full appointment book for tonight, had a smile on his face like a Siamese cat

Thought your come back was very good

still laughing

Hope all my friends back home have good humor when they recieve my email today to tell them my new Thai wife is 3 1/2 months pregnant, and I returned to be with her 1 month ago

you could always blame the 7/11 guy and his dongle

[dong]

I was so concerned about this new imposition on farang that I rushed straight down to my local 7-11. I asked the young chap behind the counter if I could check out his dongle. We are meeting tonight for drinks.

Hey must have gone to the same 7/11 store

my Thai wife went down and asked to see if she could see his dongle and was told he already had a full appointment book for tonight, had a smile on his face like a Siamese cat

Thought your come back was very good

still laughing

Hope all my friends back home have good humor when they recieve my email today to tell them my new Thai wife is 3 1/2 months pregnant, and I returned to be with her 1 month ago

you could always blame the 7/11 guy and his dongle