Thailand Gets New Cyber Crime Law

[taxexile]

Thailand gets new cyber crime law

The chief immediate effect of the new bill will be to outlaw any attempt to get around government censors to access any of the tens of thousands of sites censored for moral or political purposes, or "to damage the country".

The government pushed the new law by saying it hopes the bill will provide an effective legal tool to fight cyber crime, including theft of data and chatroom contacts that lead to rape.

-Bangkok Post

[andy1308]

Does anyone know if Thailand the first country to enact these kind of laws?

[John K]

If there is any truth to this then they have just effectively challenged every computer hacker on the planet.

Look out Thailand here it comes!

[dominique355]

So their main concern is not really fighting criminality in the Internet, but circumventing the censorship.

Shame!

[JimsKnight]

I really thought it was only Toxins TRT party that came out with this anti internet crap. I can see they created the monster and the junta folk just want to make it grow and grow!

They obviously now know the ways and means to get around their oppressive laws, but can they detect and trace to the source of IP routing, its hard, even for the ISPs to detect. So I say bring it on!

[andy1308]

It means more jobs - for the thousands of people that will need to be employed to administer the records and keep track of every single IP address of every single user. Is the technology here even capable of that right now?

Correct me if I am wrong, but let's say someone posts and anti-Thai message on a forum of a US-based website. Thailand is seriously going to demand the IP address and details of that user .. and then what? Extradite them, charge them, jail them?

[ChiangMaiAmerican]

From the Bangkokpost article:

Penalties apply to all illegal acts using the internet, including those carried out abroad and deemed to "damage the country both directly and indirectly".

Does anyone know if the law defined illegal acts "deemed to "damage the country both directly and indirectly""? If it is like so many of Thailand's laws and left up to the individual officials this could be as bad as China's censorship laws.

[taxexile]

if a poster on thai visa posted comments about the government that were less than complimentary

and deemed to be defamatory , and the cyber police came knocking on georges door asking for the identity of the poster , what is the thai visa policy regarding this ?

would thai visa divulge the ip address of the poster ? ..... what is international law on this matter ?

[andy1308]

From the Bangkokpost article:

Penalties apply to all illegal acts using the internet, including those carried out abroad and deemed to "damage the country both directly and indirectly".

Does anyone know if the law defined illegal acts "deemed to "damage the country both directly and indirectly""? If it is like so many of Thailand's laws and left up to the individual officials this could be as bad as China's censorship laws.

I agree. As it stands it would make writing anything considered by 'someone' to be damaging or defamatory to Thailand a serious crime - wherever they are in the world. We need to see exactly what the law says - but I fear the worst.

[Jai Dee]

if a poster on thai visa posted comments about the government that were less than complimentary

and deemed to be defamatory , and the cyber police came knocking on georges door asking for the identity of the poster , what is the thai visa policy regarding this ?

would thai visa divulge the ip address of the poster ? ..... what is international law on this matter ?

From the Forum Rules:

We respects the privacy of all our visitors, members and clients. Any known information is kept strictly confidential. No information is ever sold or knowingly given out to any third party.

[taxexile]

We respects the privacy of all our visitors, members and clients. Any known information is kept strictly confidential. No information is ever sold or knowingly given out to any third party.

thanks jd ,but would those rules still hold if the third party threatened to block the site in thailand unless the information requested was not forthcoming ?

[ovenman]

As it stands it would make writing anything considered by 'someone' to be damaging or defamatory to Thailand a serious crime - wherever they are in the world. We need to see exactly what the law says - but I fear the worst.

I suppose this is the law under which YouTube gets sued/prosecuted.

[Galong]

if a poster on thai visa posted comments about the government that were less than complimentary

and deemed to be defamatory , and the cyber police came knocking on georges door asking for the identity of the poster , what is the thai visa policy regarding this ?

would thai visa divulge the ip address of the poster ? ..... what is international law on this matter ?

From the Forum Rules:

We respects the privacy of all our visitors, members and clients. Any known information is kept strictly confidential. No information is ever sold or knowingly given out to any third party.

OK, but what if you were threatened with legal action?

Maybe T'land can become the censorship hub of SE Asia next

[ChiangMaiAmerican]

Don't know if this is a case of bad reporting or a real problem?

"The bill regards as a crime the intention to withhold internet protocol (IP) addresses"

Who decides if someone has the intention to withhold an IP address? If someone can be charged without actually committing an offense this law will set put Thailand on a par with China and Burma.

Edited May 10, 2007 by ChiangMaiAmerican

[taxexile]

"The bill regards as a crime the intention to withhold internet protocol (IP) addresses"

that would mean that using proxies to access banned sites is now illegal.

[Jai Dee]

We respects the privacy of all our visitors, members and clients. Any known information is kept strictly confidential. No information is ever sold or knowingly given out to any third party.

thanks jd ,but would those rules still hold if the third party threatened to block the site in thailand unless the information requested was not forthcoming ?

You'd have to get an official admin response on that, but I'm pretty sure that admin would not succumb to that kind of pressure.

There have been cases in the past where ThaiVisa has been threatened with legal action to release the private details (IP address, email account etc.) for some posters on the forum, and this has not happened.

That's also why there is a Limit of Liability section in the Rules.

[baabaabobo]

All together now - "one step forward three steps back, one step forward three steps back"

[Thailand Traveler]

All together now - "one step forward three steps back, one step forward three steps back"

rumors say "we got another year of INTERNET USE, then no more". It is the only way for the country to regain a cultural control from foreigner influence. Expect an overall ban on all foregneir websites.

[pjallittle]

Does anyone know if Thailand the first country to enact these kind of laws?

Thailand has had some form of this before now, but is hardly alone in their attempt to oversee their computer users. See many more of these, including descriptions of the degree to which this is employed in other countries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship

[chevykanteve]

If this continues, we may all have to start resorting to Cockney rhyme-slang in our forum communications.

[BlackJack]

I used to be an IT teacher and students are taught programing. The first thing they try out is circumventing the "system"

Some are good at it and get better later on in life

The point is that the system is more than easy to get around

Posting info deemed to be unacceptable - lets hope that its innocent until proven guilty

[quiksilva]

Kind of expected this from the ICT minister who "doesn't find the internet interesting".

Expect internet cafe's will do more business now...

Edited May 10, 2007 by quiksilva

[buddyholly1]

"The bill regards as a crime the intention to withhold internet protocol (IP) addresses"

that would mean that using proxies to access banned sites is now illegal.

A blogger in China is in jail for writing things the government did not like. He was traced with the help of info provided to the Chinese by Yahoo.

[chevykanteve]

Kind of expected this from the ICT minister who "doesn't find the internet interesting".

Expect internet cafe's will do more business now...

Good Point.

[jeebusjones]

How will they know if someone is using a proxy? Is it really that easy for them to find out?

Edited May 10, 2007 by jeebusjones

[IAMSOBAD]

NO WORRIES...I heard the same LEGAL EAGLES in charge of DRUNK MOTORCYCLE TAXIS...REBULIDING SUKHUMVIT SIDEWALKS...ANTI PROSTITUTION...and LAWS REQUIRING TAXI DRIVERS TO PICK YOU UP AND TAKE YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.... is the same enforcement team for the cyber police.

ALL TALK...NO ACTION.

Soon they will have a new law about what people are thinking. That will give them a new ESPOLICE.

I love democracy.

[Crushdepth]

I guess typing in an IP number is now illegal?

[Bananaman]

Dear God, what is this country coming to?

So now when if I use one of those "ways of circumventing censorship" to view a site that they feel is unsuitable for me, i'm to expect a knock-knock on the door from the old dam ruad? Unbelievable!

I can't seriously imagine though how they intend to police this thing. There must be thousands if not millions of internet users in this country that use pr*xies to access banned sites; do they really have the technology infrastructure and the manpower to bring all those offenders to justice?

[drewfritz]

Laws don't mean a ###### thing unless they can be enforced. I don't see how the government thinks they can enforce this one.

[Mobi]

And only yesterday someone sneered at me in another thread for having the temerity to suggest that Thailand was going backwards.....