Cyber Censors

[A_Traveller]

From Bangkok Post. Haven't seen this elsewhere here, and read it in the print edition.

Regards

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Chai slowly turned off his mobile phone after being informed by his office colleague that he had an urgent appointment to attend to and that Chai would have to come back into work.

The previous nights had been long and tiring for Chai and his staff. They had to stay awake, their eyes fixed on websites they had been informed might contain political content detrimental to national security.

Now they would have to stay awake again, for another night.

Chai, who does not want his real name used, headed glumly back to his office.

"Two of our guys have just knocked off and I'm not sure who will be able to stay tonight," he is told.

Since the Sept 19 coup, telecom officials like Chai and his colleagues, about six of them, have spent much of their time - often at night when most people are asleep - closely monitoring websites the authorities fear might disseminate provocative content.

The internet activity comes at a critical time, when there are political divisions in society. The internet can deliver messages instantly and in an interactive way and those in power fear the content may trigger violence, which could cause major damage to the country.

According to the Information and Communication Technology Ministry, websites deemed harmful to national security are becoming more involved in the political turmoil.

In the past, they largely concentrated on external issues, on violence in the South and on transnational crimes like drug trafficking and financial fraud. Now, they are dealing with political issues.

New websites disseminate messages attacking political opponents, in sophisticated operations that are difficult to detect.

The ministry has formed a special team to closely monitor them, and sometimes this requires a lot of time and effort.

Continued Article

[paveet]

The continued article link doesn't work...

There's the same article here though: http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=71525

[DirkGently]

The people doing this are no doubt straight out of the Thai university cloning programme. They will doubtless be clueless.

During normal surfing, by that I mean not adult material or political, I have been amazed to find sites for universities blocked.

From top to bottom there isn't a person on the censor team that has a clue. The minister in charge admitted to rarely using the internet and found one of the most popuar sites in Thailand "confusing", for forks sake.

Their dummy spitting episode over YouTube simply led to a HUGE rise in proxy use. I'd like to see them put that genie back in it's bottle.

[astral]

I agree this is a worrying topic.

Please be careful in our replies.

No detailed discussion of proxies and other similar techniques is allowed.

See the Forum Rules.

Thanks

Astral

[A_Traveller]

Paveet thanks for the update link.

The original print article showed the back of an individual in a shiny nylon wind breaker with, if memory serves, Cyber Inspector in red & blue stitching!

Regards

[Mid]

nothing has changed ,

there's always at least 3 people in a public conversation ,

you , them and the ones listening .....................

paranoia is universal now days ......................

edit to add link and quote

Singapore busts homegrown terrorists

Singapore (dpa)

The Home Affairs Ministry described the arrest of a 28-year-old law student and lecturer as part of a troubling new phenomenon of Internet-inspired individuals who are "self-radicalised" and not recruited by established terrorist groups.

Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, 28, is part of what the home affairs ministry called a troubling new phenomenon of "self-radicalised" individuals not directly recruited by established terrorist groups.

Edited June 9, 2007 by Mid