Thailand ranked among the worst countries for internet freedom

[Jonathan Fairfield]

File photo Reuters

 

Thailand has been ranked among the worst countries in the world for internet freedom.

 

According to a new study carried out by cybersecurity and online privacy experts Comparitech, Thailand's internet freedoms are "73% restricted".

 

Thailand, which scored a 8 out 11 for its internet freedom rankings, was on a par with Syria, United Arab Emirates, Eritrea and Belarus.

 

Only, Iran, North Korea and China, which scored 10 and 11, respectively, had a worse ranking than Thailand.

 

Thailand's ranking have fallen significantly since it scored 6 out of 20 in the same study carried out in 2020.

 

Comparitech put Thailand's score down to the censorship of websites, including the likes of Pornhub, which was among the 20 most visited sites for Thai internet users before it was banned last year. 

 

As well as the ban on pornography, the political media is also heavily censored, the study said, which was the case for all countries with the same or similar score to Thailand.

 

"All of these countries (in the eighth tier) ban pornography, have heavily censored political media, restrict social media (bans have also been seen in Turkmenistan), and restrict the use of VPNs,” said Comparitech.

 

“Thailand saw the biggest increase in censorship, including the introduction of an online porn ban which saw 190 adult websites being taken down.”

 

Comparitech said it carried out the study by looking restrictions or bans on for the likes of pornography, social media, the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and messaging apps, as well as the restrictions or censorship of political discussions online.

 

The news comes as Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha this week failed in a bid to crackdown on so-called 'fake news'.

 

The PM had initially wanted to ban any news or information that could "cause fear"among the public.

 

However, critics said the ban was an attempt to stifle free speech and criticism of the government.

 

Despite already being publish in Royal Gazette, Thailand's Civil Court on Friday ruled the ban as unconstitutional.

 

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[RotBenz8888]

3 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

As well as the ban on pornography

A friend told me he's still able to enter a few sites

[Dmaxdan]

I guess it won't be long before the internet here becomes intranet.

[Karma80]

They can't even make an app that works, but want to control the internet in a world of VPNs and encryption. Bless.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Karma80

[VocalNeal]

I agree even a bird called a <deleted> is censored on here.

[Thailand]

And likely to get worse as the people build up their protests and the ptb react in the only way they know.

[tomazbodner]

Who sponsored this? Pornhub? There's more to internet than porn and politics.

[internationalism]

the government can't win this censorship war.

In june the new minister of digital control ordered facebook to shut down accounts of 10 the most prominent opposition figures. Facebook just ignored those requests.  Because of the publicity (all thai mass media carried articles about these requests) hundreds of thousands people actually started to follow those accounts. 

The only the government can do is court order against each post on social media. But it takes weeks before they are deleted and owners of those posts can re-post them, causing double embarrassment.

When the royalist marketplace group on fb was ordered to be geoblocked in thailand, they sprang within seconds and within few weeks doubled their membership (with over 2mln they are one of the largest groups on the entire fb).

It's also known for long, that thai have many accounts on social media and not under their true name. Even easier to be completely anonymous on twitter. You can't really repress when hashtag #rumour on twitter hit 5.3mln in September.

Clearly, self-censorship doesn't work anymore, with people commenting and sharing strictly no-no subjects, including republicanism.

The single gateway did not work to trace the IP's.

The ISOC (internal security operations command) is employing of thousands intelligence officers just to monitor the net and run their hate campaigns. But they are not skilled and every few months there is a scandal showing their involvement. Twitter and fb can track them by algorithms and shut them

Edited August 8, 2021 by internationalism

[lujanit]

How do they restrict the use of VPNs?  My VPN is not blocked and has never been.

 

With all the online banking the use of a VPN is essential, well IMHO.

[thaitom]

42 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

A friend told me he's still able to enter a few sites

And another "friend" can access pornhub .th  but says pornhub  . com is blocked. How's that for censorship ?  But I wouldn't know

[ThailandRyan]

26 minutes ago, Dmaxdan said:

I guess it won't be long before the internet here becomes intranet.

A good VPN does wonders

[Doctor Tom]

This report is nonsense. Apart from a few FB pages being taken down and the same for U Tube, its as free as anywhere I know.  The cyber people are just getting their knickers in the usual twist.  I also don't see any VPNs being blocked or banned, 

[cyril sneer]

porn has never been blocked when accessing through a google search

[Doctor Tom]

8 minutes ago, lujanit said:

How do they restrict the use of VPNs?  

They don't, its nonsense  

[Doctor Tom]

12 minutes ago, internationalism said:

the government can't win this censorship war.

They are not trying to do so.  

[bobandyson]

5 minutes ago, cyril sneer said:

porn has never been blocked when accessing through a google search

Xvideos .com (without the space) is blocked but when using 'xvideos .com asian' it takes you to googles search results.

A friend didn't tell me this.????

It seems that only website homepages are blocked. 

[Berkshire]

While internet freedom is a wonderful concept, I can see how "too much" freedom is not necessarily a wonderful thing.  I can agree that restrictive internet like the way it's practiced in N. Korea is horrible.  But internet freedom as practiced in the USA can have side effects.  Internet in the USA is so massively infected with misinformation, fake news, hate speech, and all manner of <deleted> that a large number of Americans have become brainwashed morons.  Perhaps there's a middle ground.  

[tomazbodner]

23 minutes ago, internationalism said:

the government can't win this censorship war.

In june the new minister of digital control ordered facebook to shut down accounts of 10 the most prominent opposition figures. Facebook just ignored those requests.  Because of the publicity (all thai mass media carried articles about these requests) hundreds of thousands people actually started to follow those accounts. 

The only the government can do is court order against each post on social media. But it takes weeks before they are deleted and owners of those posts can re-post them, causing double embarrassment.

When the royalist marketplace group on fb was ordered to be geoblocked in thailand, they sprang within seconds and within few weeks doubled their membership (with over 2mln they are one of the largest groups on the entire fb).

It's also known for long, that thai have many accounts on social media and not under their true name. Even easier to be completely anonymous on twitter. You can't really repress when hashtag #rumour on twitter hit 5.3mln in September.

Clearly, self-censorship doesn't work anymore, with people commenting and sharing strictly no-no subjects, including republicanism.

The single gateway did not work to trace the IP's.

The ISOC (internal security operations command) is employing of thousands intelligence officers just to monitor the net and run their hate campaigns. But they are not skilled and every few months there is a scandal showing their involvement. Twitter and fb can track them by algorithms and shut them

Disagree. It could order all Thai gateways (which by law should all be at CAT or whatever TOT+CAT is called now) block IP ranges or domains (which it is already doing for many domains) and make use of VPNs a criminal offense like China. It is not hard to detect VPN tunnels going through your gateways. Those also collect logs which can be analysed by automatic scripts. So if they wanted, all it would take is some investment and training, and they can take full control of your internet connection.

[thaitom]

37 minutes ago, Doctor Tom said:

They don't, its nonsense  

China has the power to block VPN .  I know this for a fact.

[Doctor Tom]

Just now, thaitom said:

China has the power to block VPN .  I know this for a fact.

Yes indeed they do, but they are paranoid, criminal, megalomaniac control freaks, with a morbid fear of the Capitalist west, the Thais are none of those things. 

[tomazbodner]

25 minutes ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

Theres politics on the internet????!!!

You never read this forum?

[thaitom]

4 minutes ago, Doctor Tom said:

Yes indeed they do, but they are paranoid, criminal, megalomaniac control freaks, with a morbid fear of the Capitalist west, the Thais are none of those things. 

Yes, I agree.

 

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, RotBenz8888 said:

A friend told me he's still able to enter a few sites

He must be the same friend as mine !   LOL

[mtls2005]

Tough one for the regime, if they try to restrict too much the salim will rebel.

 

And goodness knows, they need to post their luxury-item unboxing video on social media...

 

 

 

 

[herfiehandbag]

51 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

While internet freedom is a wonderful concept, I can see how "too much" freedom is not necessarily a wonderful thing.  I can agree that restrictive internet like the way it's practiced in N. Korea is horrible.  But internet freedom as practiced in the USA can have side effects.  Internet in the USA is so massively infected with misinformation, fake news, hate speech, and all manner of <deleted> that a large number of Americans have become brainwashed morons.  Perhaps there's a middle ground.  

It has ever been so - just look at some of the demagogic rallies in the early years of World War 1 in the UK. They featured misinformation, fake news, hate speech, and all manner of bul<deleted>, and were designed to brainwash. 

 

Similar charges were made against the printed media, and later broadcast media ( still are).

 

The internet has just broadened the reach and sped the process up.

 

Control doesn't work, just look at the reach of the "Samizdat underground media" in the Soviet Union and it's Eastern European satellites. Government controll media will inevitably be manipulated.

 

The only safeguard is to rely upon the sense, judgement ant education of the media consumer. In this field I accept, in the USA in particular, there is a major problem. You can't legislate or ban it away if you want any semblance of a free society.

Edited August 8, 2021 by herfiehandbag

[Pattaya Spotter]

Should do wonders for developing the iEconomy and attracting all those digital nomads the govt is seeking.

[Misterwhisper]

What I find so disgusting is that we are here looking at a regime on the far right of the political spectrum and which is almost exactly and in every minute detail emulating the internet censorship as imposed by the Communist Party of China, a regime on the far left.

 

But that only goes to prove that rightwing extremism and leftwing extremism are actually bedfellows that get along just splendidly. That is because their respective main objectives are practically identical: total control over and systematic oppression of the general population.  

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, thaitom said:

China has the power to block VPN .  I know this for a fact.

and that makes 2 of us

[mikebell]

I'm with 3BB and I'd settle for a reliable service with a decent speed for my internet use.

[Rimmer]

off topic post removed