Thailand Blocks Access To WikiLeaks Website

[Tywais]

A reminder of this forum rule:

9) Not to discuss proxies or other methods of bypassing government blocking of websites.

[Boater]

If this is part of what Thai authorities don`t want us to see at Wikileaks, what is wrong with the world?

It`s an absolute disgrace. This should be available for anyone.

if you read through the other posts, they are not blocking it because of this.....

[Deeral]

Absolutley appalling, it leads one to wonder what the govt is trying to cover up.anyone who thinks that Thailand is heading AWAY from democracy, raise your hand

[crazyswede]

Good , block all servers from Sweden!

Edited August 18, 2010 by crazyswede

[Jirapa]

I've just tried accessing

http://wikileaks.org/

No can do.

While this will not affect tourism, it is probably a better indicator of the political situation in this country than any amount of Yellow and Red demonstrations.

It is always a sign of the decline of the ruling class when it has to resort to censorship of this kind.

I think you can. I can't through Google but can by linking to it through other sites. Won't say what site I used so it doesn't get blocked but it's pretty obvious!

[Buchholz]

Absolutley appalling, it leads one to wonder what the govt is trying to cover up.anyone who thinks that Thailand is heading AWAY from democracy, raise your hand

It wouldn't appear they are trying to cover up much if the indication on this thread is that for the majority of users in Thailand the website is not blocked.

Appalling is all these frequent proclamations from either users or the government that something is "blocked" and invariably it seems when I try to access the claimed site, it opens without difficulty.

[allegorical]

Wikileaks is NOT blocked here in Trang!

[asiawatcher]

Internet competency by kids far surpasses the ability of the Thailand 'officials' to weed out what it 'deems' to be untenable viewing or opinions. Govt censorship is always about Big Brother - control etc... Yawn...

This website has been blocked by ICT

[RedNIvar]

I never hard of this site. Thanks. now I already watch the video of the powerful people. now i know why it should be block. But many people know how to use proxy servers to go around.

Ditto, these people must be brain dead. Any reasonable person's first response is why? As Samrit states, find a proxy server & the dog is outta the bag, along with anything else that big brother thinks you cannot handle. TiT

The Streisand Effect, the harder you try to hide something(right, wrong or indifferent) the more you grow its popularity. Have not checked the site out yet, but will later tonight.

[Deeral]

The govt thinks it has the right to block this site - whether or not they are so stupid that you can get round it is irrelevant - they are basically applying censorship - totally unacceptable - they are censoring about 20,000 web sites so far and there is no place for behaviour like this in a functioning democracy.

If it happens in a democracy people complain and there are court cases etc etc - in Thailand no such thing as the re is no separation between govt and courts etc

[Deeral]

"not trying to cover up much" is OK is it???

so why have they blocked the site?

Edited August 18, 2010 by Deeral

[robert00]

Thread shutdown in 3,2,1...

dont worry about it, some is interesting reading others is just political bullshit

[Buchholz]

The govt thinks it has the right to block this site - whether or not they are so stupid that you can get round it is irrelevant - they are basically applying censorship - totally unacceptable -

Are they? It seems most people on here are having no problem accessing it without any special maneuvers.

they are censoring about 20,000 web sites so far and there is no place for behaviour like this in a functioning democracy.

Just the sort of stuff I was just posting about.

A few posts back on Post # 19, the claim was 110,000 websites were.

The wild claims are all over the place.

The distortions seem as reckless as the blocking itself.

[kitski]

Not blocked here (isp cat telecom chiangmai), also not blocked on ais (isp of my neighbor).

Could access some pages I tried from the list here (bottom of the page), and generally it seems to be ok. However the picture is stupid, hehe, and a lot outdated.. Wikileaks could come with something better. In case is blocked for you, try ghostsurf (shareware, free for 30 days or so). Anyhow, who cares? Want to see the thai life, get on the street. Get a life, forget the internet gossip. I have been here for more then 10 years and really like Thailand. Stupid politicians I have in my country too, there is no forest without dead trees...

[ScienceGuy]

Thread shutdown in 3,2,1...

dont worry about it, some is interesting reading others is just political bullshit

Confirmed. wikileaks.org is blocked by ICT. But not http://mirror.wikileaks.info/ wikileaxs

[lucky2103]

This is most likely not related to the afghan papers, as this site was blocked before these document were released. If you look under the 'Thailand' section on that site you will find an obvious reason for it being blocked.

Yep, it is obvious that the latest entry in the Thailand section is the reason for the blocking of the site.

However, I would like to raise the question whether Thai authorities think that an issue will go away by just attempting to ban the free flow of informations about it.

Sounds like childish behaviour....

Edited August 18, 2010 by lucky2103

[alex_aka_P]

TOT, Bangkok

The site IS blocked.

[tilac2]

So if you can access the Wikileaks site, describe the party scene?

You can't because you can't.

Look at this http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/1,203_new_websites_censored_by_Thailand

this http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hwTvlq2LG5p7q_enhxXJ4BwXGLwQ

this http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703824304575435170175485654.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

We're in a police state guys.

Deeral said: "it leads one to wonder what the govt is trying to cover up.anyone who thinks that Thailand is heading AWAY from democracy, raise your hand"

My hand is raised.

[swerver]

DAY LATE - DOLLAR SHORT

Hidden Intelligence Operation Behind the Wikileaks Release of

"Secret" Documents?

The real story of Wikileaks has clearly not yet been told.

Since the dramatic release of a US military film of a US airborne shooting of unarmed journalists in Iraq, Wiki-Leaks has gained global notoriety and credibility as a daring website that releases sensitive material to the public from whistleblowers within various governments. Their latest “coup” involved alleged leak of thousands of pages of supposedly sensitive documents regarding US informers within the Taliban in Afghanistan and their ties to senior people linked to Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence.

August 11, 2010

The evidence suggests however that far from an honest leak, it is a calculated disinformation to the gain of the US and perhaps Israeli and Indian intelligence and a cover up of the US and Western role in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan.

Since the posting of the Afghan documents some days ago the Obama White House has given the leaks credibility by claiming further leaks pose a threat to US national security. Yet details of the papers reveal little that is sensitive. The one figure most prominently mentioned General (Retired) Hamid Gul, former head of the Pakistani military intelligence agency, ISI, is the man who during the 1980’s coordinated the CIA-financed Mujahideen guerilla war in Afghanistan against the Soviet regime there. In the latest Wikileaks documents, Gul is accused of regularly meeting al-Qaeda and Taliban leading people and orchestrating suicide attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The leaked documents also claim that Osama bin Laden, who was reported dead three years ago by the late Pakistan candidate Benazir Bhutto on BBC, was still alive, conveniently keeping the myth alive for the Obama Administration War on Terror at a point when most Americans had forgotten the original reason the Bush II Administration allegedly invaded Afghanistan to pursue the Saudi Bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks.

Demonizing Pakistan?

. … detailed with backup information which I think Thaivisa will not print.

Who is Julian Assange?

Wikileaks founder and “Editor-in-chief”, Julian Assange, is a mysterious 29-year-old Australian about who little is known. He has suddenly become a prominent public figure offering to mediate with the White House over the leaks. Following the latest leaks, Assange told Der Spiegel, one of three outlets with which he shared material from the most recent leak, that the documents he had unearthed would “change our perspective on not only the war in Afghanistan, but on all modern wars.” He stated in the same interview that “I enjoy crushing bastards.” Wikileaks, founded in 2006 by Assange, has no fixed home and Assange claims he “lives in airports these days.”

Continue: … detailed with backup information which I think Thaivisa will not print.

[LivinLOS]

Same file that was doing the rounds at least 3 years ago..

I remember some TG's watching at at my villa looking around over their shoulders as they watched it.. One said "whoever make this video.. He die now".. Funny seeing how freaked out by it they were.

[Deeral]

The govt thinks it has the right to block this site - whether or not they are so stupid that you can get round it is irrelevant - they are basically applying censorship - totally unacceptable -

Are they? It seems most people on here are having no problem accessing it without any special maneuvers.

they are censoring about 20,000 web sites so far and there is no place for behaviour like this in a functioning democracy.

Just the sort of stuff I was just posting about.

A few posts back on Post # 19, the claim was 110,000 websites were.

The wild claims are all over the place.

The distortions seem as reckless as the blocking itself.

what an utterly facile comment!

The fact is that whether it's 20k, 110k or one it is censorship and symptomatic of this governments ( and previous) attitude to civil rights - if you consider this OK then you are as despicable as all the people down through history who think they can suppress others for their own advantage.

[galoubet]

Thank you dear Thai government for blocking the WikiLeaks website. Even with the furore over the Afghan leaks I never visited the site before. But today I have. Well done! By your actions you have made this video available to a much wider audience. Mind you, I can see why the video is banned. It's the most dreadfully shot home video I've ever seen. I guess the Thai government was so embarrassed by the quality they wanted it suppressed.

[harsh4]

or because there are videos there of some pretty powerful people in Thailand in some compromising positions.

Yeah, probably the pooch's party. Funny, I've never looked at wikileaks.org before so when it said it was blocked I checked. It doesn't seem to be.

i just looked as well and working perfectly for me on 3BB, even those it was blocked before

Right, but go to wikileaks.org then search 'thailand' and click on 'go' and it takes you to 'access denied' message...

[swerver]

WOW 10880 Posts and counting

[Deeral]

I think the added publicity will be a spin-ff.

It is an amazingly useful site; i have an acquaintance who has used the site to find out how many of the - THe BNP ( the ultra right-wing UK ex Nazi party) are living in Thailand - I wonder if the Thai govt would have been interested in that?

[Insight]

Looks like they didn't learn anything blocking YouTube.

As other posters have mentioned, international observers will ask "why" then go looking for it themselves. What was a local domestic scandal (albeit mentioned in hushed tones) will now become an international embarrassment.

[IvanDobsky]

the site is still not blocked "up north"

even if it were, there are ways and means of accessing the information, as we are all obviously aware.

What I don't understand : if it is something to do with a video that was doing the rounds on VCD 3-4 years ago, why publicise it? It's been on wikileaks since November 2009!! Why do they want it fresh in everyone's mind again?

[Cuban]

This thread popped up on my Google tracker, "..oh what's this about I think..", read the news item, "..I wonder what they are trying to hide, I think..", look at the site, find the torrent, now downloading the film at a very healthy 400kbps, about a third of the peers are within Thailand.

Thai government are particularly good at shooting themselves squarely in both feet.

If you want to publicise a new product get a government department to ban it.

[Sunny Valentine]

@IvanDobsky: One can only guess that someone wants to spread the video. Further speculation inappropriate.

[hardy1943]

as the above posters mention, anyone who has view the website will now perfectly well why it was blocked , and it aint cos of USA security leaks

And Thailand calls it self a Democracy? PM a Democrat?