Thailand ranked among the worst countries for internet freedom

[Nickelbeer]

I can access every one of the 10 opposition figures they supposedly banned.  VPNs are illegal here too, but they seem to be readily available. Any aggressive censorship would be an expensive undertaking. The government does not want to commit funds to this type of thing.

[Jeffrey346]

Don't really care that they block porn.. What bother me is the  international throttling. 

[Scott]

Off-topic post and reply reported and removed.

 

[aboctok]

Awarding contracts to the same close friends all the time is not recommended. When a user tries to access Pornhub these days, the blocker instead displays the previous user's porn search history.

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

VPN = 100% Anonymity. Use always in Unfree countries.

Ideaology Irrelevant. Power is the End not the Means for all Dictators.

After Snowdens insights, VPN should be an Internet Personal Standard.

...... everywhere......

Yes, VPN can be (temporarily) blocked by those named efficient dictatorships, but no other tyrants bothers much.... too expensive.....

nobody ever seized power by Internet....they care ONLY to Keep Power.

although Internet does well expose govt. propaganda nonsense.

 

When working in China six years ago, Govt. typically managed to block my VPN every three days for one day before my VPN re- routed / re- started at source.

Zero Western Internet there without VPN. Nightmare Orwellian country.

No doubt the 40,00 CCP Cyber Operators are constantly battling the ever improving western VPNs.....

 

Freedom of Speech / Press etc should really be Decriminalized & Absolute, except perhaps for REALLY Extreme Horrific Physically Violent Stuff like Child Abuse, Genocide, Mutilations, Serious Crime Orgs.

 

“ Hate Crimes” is just a Silly & Inadequate phrase for such an important human right.....leads to pathetic “ offended victim” syndrome and Police “ thought crime” Cautions when no actual crime committed / charged. 

 

But you cant fix stupid.....if emotional people do not adopt rational data sourcing, accept who speaks  first - loudest- often and choose to believe illogical nonsense or obvious total liars like CCP RF NK Iran CNN plus USA / EU Dimocrats, then they cannot be changed......

.(explain 80 mill Biden Voters ?.) .....

every word from those sources can be assumed a LIE .........

unless properly corroborated from reliable western real expert sources ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[it is what it is]

 

given the success of locally developed apps, and my online banking portal looks like it was designed as a school project, i dont see them getting on top of controlling the internet anytime soon as they simply dont have the IT skills base

[runamok27]

14 hours 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.  

The real danger are the people who want to determine what is misinformation, fake news, hate speech etc. and those who believe only other people are brainwashed morons. I prefer big brother not step in and tell me what to think. I don't see how you are any different from any tin pot dictator out there.

[EricTh]

That's simply not true. I see a lot of Thai government bashing in this forum and nothing happened to them....so there is internet freedom in Thailand unlike some countries ...

[fusion58]

14 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

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.  

It’s not the left/right axis that’s significant here - it’s the authoritarian/libertarian axis. In other words, the regime in China isn’t necessarily socially repressive because it’s communist - it’s repressive because it’s authoritarian. 

[Nickelbeer]

9 hours ago, simon43 said:

LoL, here in 'communist' Laos, I have never had any issues with blocked websites.  Pornhub is open (well, so a friend told me!).  Even my favorite rubberwear wholesale supplier website is accessible.... ????

Laos may CALL itself Communist, but it is really a strange variant that is uncategorizable. I encountered lots of entrepreneurs there on my visa visit. My favorite was the 7-11 clerk who followed me around the store with a smile on her face. I was the only customer and she was determined to help me find what I was looking for. I didn't try the internet, but I'm sure it was equally unencumbered. Laos was the strangest country I have ever visited, even the cops were friendly and helpful. ????

[jacko45k]

8 hours ago, Jeffrey346 said:

Don't really care that they block porn.. What bother me is the  international throttling. 

And in the last month seems to be more of an issue.....

[fangless]

10 hours ago, Nickelbeer said:

VPNs are illegal here too,

No they are not. 

Just look at the the VPN companies who claim to have host servers in this country! (even if some are physically based in Singapore)!

 

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by fangless

[Berkshire]

11 hours ago, runamok27 said:

The real danger are the people who want to determine what is misinformation, fake news, hate speech etc. and those who believe only other people are brainwashed morons. I prefer big brother not step in and tell me what to think. I don't see how you are any different from any tin pot dictator out there.

I find that hardcore free speech advocates tend to be people who want unfettered free speech for stuff they agree with.  But let me ask you this:  what if some random Thai person with a huge social media following were to proclaim "Farang men in Thailand need to be killed on sight because they are intentionally trying to infect Thais with COVID and HIV!"  Protected free speech?  It doesn't matter how nonsensical some speech is because it seems there are always people inclined to believe anything.  And if just 1% of Thais were to believe this (or around 650,000 people), that could be a public safety problem, don't you think? 

[Capella]

 

On 8/8/2021 at 9:43 AM, 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.  

That's an interesting point, but who watches those who watch over us?

Edited August 9, 2021 by Capella

[Capella]

51 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

I find that hardcore free speech advocates tend to be people who want unfettered free speech for stuff they agree with.  But let me ask you this:  what if some random Thai person with a huge social media following were to proclaim "Farang men in Thailand need to be killed on sight because they are intentionally trying to infect Thais with COVID and HIV!"  Protected free speech?  It doesn't matter how nonsensical some speech is because it seems there are always people inclined to believe anything.  And if just 1% of Thais were to believe this (or around 650,000 people), that could be a public safety problem, don't you think? 

There's a difference between freely and peacefully expressing (even unpopular) opinions and inciting others to do harm to one another. But you know that already.

[kwilco]

On 8/8/2021 at 5:15 AM, Mavideol said:

and that makes 2 of us

But I know many in China who routinely use VPN to get onto Facebook etc. 

 

Thailand has lo g history of shutting down web sites. 160000 in 2010.

The thai authorities consist largely of elderly men who did not get their positions through merit.

 

They dont understand the interenet and fear criticism and fear what they dont understand. Anything that poses a threat to their strangle hold on power has to be squashed.

However in the long run, this will stifle both business and the transfer of opinions and knowledge

 

Thewxtent of censorship extends way beyond direct government action.... Already many sites self censor in Thailand through fear of the draconian anti freedom of expression laws....and this will all damage Thailand in the long run.

Edited August 9, 2021 by kwilco

[Harveyboy]

On 8/8/2021 at 9:26 AM, thaitom said:

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

mmmm my friend says the same ..

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, Berkshire said:

I find that hardcore free speech advocates tend to be people who want unfettered free speech for stuff they agree with.  But let me ask you this:  what if some random Thai person with a huge social media following were to proclaim "Farang men in Thailand need to be killed on sight because they are intentionally trying to infect Thais with COVID and HIV!"  Protected free speech?  It doesn't matter how nonsensical some speech is because it seems there are always people inclined to believe anything.  And if just 1% of Thais were to believe this (or around 650,000 people), that could be a public safety problem, don't you think? 

Not for the Thais which is all that really matters after all.

 

Also the people aren't as dumb as you might think, they are not happy at all.

[Berkshire]

4 hours ago, Capella said:

There's a difference between freely and peacefully expressing (even unpopular) opinions and inciting others to do harm to one another. But you know that already.

That's rather naive.  I can cite specific instances where "peacefully expressing opinions" did result in inciting others to do harm to one another.  If you try real hard, I'm sure you can find examples as well.

[Capella]

On 8/9/2021 at 5:28 PM, Berkshire said:

That's rather naive.  I can cite specific instances where "peacefully expressing opinions" did result in inciting others to do harm to one another.  If you try real hard, I'm sure you can find examples as well.

If those opinions really were peaceful, you wouldn't need to use inverted commas ????

 

[spidermike007]

A Thai Civil Court ruled against the regime? Miracles never cease. 

 

Like everything else connected to this disastrous administration, I think they are referring to their attempts to impose bans, not the result of those feeble attempts.

 

As with all they do, it always ends in failure. The incompetence and lack of cyber skill is so stunning, they cannot even succeed in a ban on criticism of themselves. Hah! Good. 

[kwilco]

On 8/9/2021 at 6:04 AM, Berkshire said:

I find that hardcore free speech advocates tend to be people who want unfettered free speech for stuff they agree with.  But let me ask you this:  what if some random Thai person with a huge social media following were to proclaim "Farang men in Thailand need to be killed on sight because they are intentionally trying to infect Thais with COVID and HIV!"  Protected free speech?  It doesn't matter how nonsensical some speech is because it seems there are always people inclined to believe anything.  And if just 1% of Thais were to believe this (or around 650,000 people), that could be a public safety problem, don't you think? 

Such a naive comment!

[rott]

On 8/11/2021 at 1:54 AM, kwilco said:

Such a naive comment!

Such a snide, sneering and offensive post. 

[baboon]

On 8/8/2021 at 3:08 AM, tomazbodner said:

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

True, but gambling is also illegal....