Culture Ministry's Webboards Bombarded By Lewd Links

[sriracha john]

Watchdog's webboards bombarded by lewd links

Webboards at the Culture Ministry's website have been bombarded with hundreds of lewd web links, the Culture Watch Centre has found. The centre found more than 500 sexually-explicit web links put up on webboards run by the ministry, which has been campaigning against obscene websites. The on-line forums are intended to encourage discussion of travel, religion, ancient ruins, teens, entertainment and lifestyle. The centre, which is attached to the ministry as a watchdog on cultural issues, said it was concerned about the links, because webboard readers included young people and many web links carried blatant names, such as sexy girls and sexy cowgirls. The centre said some of the websites offered explicit porn photos and sex services. Many links had been posted since Dec 9. The website, www.m-culture.go.th, could not be accessed last night.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/13Dec2007_news03.php

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sexy cowgirls??? when does thaivisa get a female emoticon???

btw, just tried the link (for research purposes only!) and it's back up...

[marquess]

Watchdog's webboards bombarded by lewd links

Webboards at the Culture Ministry's website have been bombarded with hundreds of lewd web links, the Culture Watch Centre has found. The centre found more than 500 sexually-explicit web links put up on webboards run by the ministry, which has been campaigning against obscene websites. The on-line forums are intended to encourage discussion of travel, religion, ancient ruins, teens, entertainment and lifestyle. The centre, which is attached to the ministry as a watchdog on cultural issues, said it was concerned about the links, because webboard readers included young people and many web links carried blatant names, such as sexy girls and sexy cowgirls. The centre said some of the websites offered explicit porn photos and sex services. Many links had been posted since Dec 9. The website, www.m-culture.go.th, could not be accessed last night.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/13Dec2007_news03.php

=================================

sexy cowgirls??? :D when does thaivisa get a female emoticon???

btw, just tried the link (for research purposes only!) and it's back up...

[TAWP]

An educated guess would be that it's a case of monkeys behind the controls and it's normal spam bots for explicit sites that have found the forum.

[Rajah]

From the article: "... after the ministry said it was contemplating rating a romance novel. ... to censor sex and erotic scenes.

Yeah! First the movies, now the books! Why not censor it all? It would be much easier to ban everything and leave the country with a couple of operas and books. China did that over a long period and it worked out well - in the eyes of the powers that be.

[marquess]

From the article: "... after the ministry said it was contemplating rating a romance novel. ... to censor sex and erotic scenes.

Yeah! First the movies, now the books! Why not censor it all? It would be much easier to ban everything and leave the country with a couple of operas and books. China did that over a long period and it worked out well - in the eyes of the powers that be.

Sex doesn't exist in Thailand, people are born by magic, males and females don't have any sexual organs, breasts are such nasty things that must be covered up all the time. All hail the ministry of vice and virtue, oh sorry I forgot that was in Afganisthan!

[londonthai]

if not prime minister than the minister for culture should issue a lenghty public statement on the topic - they have to be busy regulating peoples lifes wherever they can, in real lifes and in their cyber lifes

[Ricardo]

Sex doesn't exist in Thailand, people are born by magic, males and females don't have any sexual organs, breasts are such nasty things that must be covered up all the time. All hail the ministry of vice and virtue, oh sorry I forgot that was in Afganisthan!

You mean, they aren't left under the banana tree, by elephants ? !

[Seneque]

A ministry of culture ....? or is it agriculture

[Scott]

It never works out very well when decidely low tech people try to go hi-tech!

[jayjayjayjay]

Watchdog's webboards bombarded by lewd links

~~~~snip~~~~~

sexy cowgirls??? when does thaivisa get a female emoticon???

btw, just tried the link (for research purposes only!) and it's back up...

How did Trink put it "HumaNature" or something of the lyke!

[Rajah]

How did Trink put it "HumaNature" or something of the lyke!

huMANnatURE

[TheMac]

Not Found

The requested URL /News/13Dec2007_news03.php was not found on this server.

Apache/1.3.34 Server at www.bangkokpost.net Port 80

Was it also censored?

[GungaDin]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/131207_News/13Dec2007_news03.php

It will vanish again.

http://www.m-culture.go.th/culture01/cindex.php

[sriracha john]

Not Found

The requested URL /News/13Dec2007_news03.php was not found on this server.

Apache/1.3.34 Server at www.bangkokpost.net Port 80

Was it also censored?

Not censored. It's standard operating procedure (SOP) for the Bangkok Post to pull down news articles online after a day or so. It's incentive to purchase their online subscriber service which allows you to read their archived articles.

However, the DPA News service has no such policy and so, here is their article on the topic (posted in its entirety, which goes against another Bangkok Post nuance):

Thai government's culture website reveals lewd links

Bangkok - Thailand's Culture Ministry website designed to promote online discussion of travel, religion, lifestyle and ancient temples has been infiltrated by hundreds of lewd web links offering pornography and sex services, media reports said Thursday.

An investigation by the Culture Watch Centre revealed that the www.m-culture.go.th website was being used by more than 500 "sexually-explicit" web links bearing names such as "sexy girls" and "sexy cowgirls" on the site's web board, said the Bangkok Post.

Culture Minister Khaisri Sriaroon has demanded that Thongchai Masattana, director of the ministry's IT centre, explain how webmasters had failed to screen out the "saucy content" from the government site.

Under Khaisri, the ministry has fought against obscene websites and engaged in other "cultural" activities such as waging a campaign against Thai school girls' short skirts.

- DPA

[John K]

There certainly seems to be a conflict between very old culture, old culture and new culture. I wonder if she realizes that.

[TAWP]

Or in many cases, new old culture - as the need for a fully covered woman are a Victorian heritage and not a real Thai cultural thing.