Thai ICT Ministry May Further Control The Internet

[silp1979]

yesterday, said the ICT Ministry was "very competent" at blocking sites deemed a threat to national security and the monarchy institution

Oh yes we all know that don't we.Last year there was 1 videoclip on youtube considered as an insult to the monarchy and they blocked the whole site.Untill the people from youtube explained to them how to block a single clip from view.

Very comepetent for sure.

totally unpropfessional blocking! Not really worth the word blocked. If you really want to see something it is easy to find all the info in the net. Young kids/students know all about that. Just makes it more interesting to see, like the porn in daddy's drawer, or the gun, or??? :jap:

[Robby nz]

When I saw the headline it looked like the ICT was saying it would block websites.

But no it is just some accademic saying they might.

Every country blocks web content.

Whether TL does any more than any other country is debatable.

Would suspect it would censor far less than any of the surrounding countries.

[afx]

begin removed ...

But despite being highly surveiled I dont know of a single website that is blocked in UK.

... end removed

Please have a look at this webpage http://en.wikipedia....atch_Foundation

It says a.o. "Since 2010, blocking Internet users from accessing the content on this list is mandatory for all UK based ISPs that want to be eligible for contracts with government agencies and other public bodies."

To be confirmed: 'however the BBC has blocked non-UK IP addresses from accessing a lot of them.'

Thanks for the wiki link - I only see one URL mentioned and that wasn't an outright ban (scorpions wiki album cover) and that was by only some ISP's who chose to block it. It was not a mandatory ban from on high. I don't see this happening enmasse and again it's very easy to circumvent.

I don't follow your point about the BBC, they are not an ISP and technically in no position to block non UK IP's from accessing any other hosted content except their own hosted content (which they do regularly - blocking iplayer etc. Presumably because they think only license fee payers should be able to view it).

Edited October 15, 2010 by afx

[JohnBKKK]

Good news, as there are many criminals lurking around in the internet.

Some people are either too thick or too naive to see what this means and where this will lead. The problem exists since 9/11 after which governments felt free to implement restrictions on communication of the general public as well as eves-dropping and controlling the internet. 9/11 was the card blanch for all governments to do things they wouldn't have dared before. The terrorists have won part of their campaign already by causing the western style of life to have changed dramatically.

The Thai government now uses "terrorism" as an excuse to control communications in general and the internet. Thaksin is one of the main instigators for that to thank since he used the Internet as an effective tool during the red shirt campaign.

The problem is that most people, like "chantorn" are lambs who will not realize that they are being led to the "slaughter" - what they did in the US since 9/11 would have caused widespread demonstrations any time before that date/act. By the way, old Hitler was pretty good at that game as well. Electronic communication like today was not available, but he would bee just as good in today's time.

In short, the world is going to <deleted>!

[supaprik]

how does a site that shows naked images of models qualify as a site deemed a threat to national security and the monarchy institution?( as was the site I was looking at until yesterday ) Take a walk down most streets in thailand and see it for real...Stop criminals my arse...anal retentives!!

Edited October 15, 2010 by cdnvic
fixed text formatting for readability

[animatic]

Perhaps the government would have better results if it taught children to inform on their parents. It works in North Korea. May PM Abhisit can speak to the heir apparent of the wonderful North Koreans and get some pointers on how to quash this internet threat.

Geriatrickid: I have a question for you. What would happen in the US, or any first world country for that matter (France, UK, Germany, etc.), if you had a web page proposing the violent overthrow of the nation and the killing of the PM? If I am not mistaken, isn't that what some of the red websites propose?

I don't mean to start a huge argument here...just curious if you know the ramifications of something like this. I know the answer for China. Your family will be billed for the bullet....

He's being ironic.

[ThaiMouse]

Can someone please educate me as I seem to confuse the definitions of democracy and communist.......

The simple question of where will it all end one would assume to be obvious unless you are the ones in control or simply do not care.

Democracy is the political orientation of those who favour government by the people or by their elected representatives.

Communist is a person who has F-all and wants to share it with the world.

[JohnBKKK]

Can someone please educate me as I seem to confuse the definitions of democracy and communist.......

The simple question of where will it all end one would assume to be obvious unless you are the ones in control or simply do not care.

Democracy is the political orientation of those who favour government by the people or by their elected representatives.

Communist is a person who has F-all and wants to share it with the world.

Simple, in capitalism, about 20% of the population has most and the rest a little bit - in Communism about 1000 people have it all - the members of the polit-buero

[rubl]

begin removed ...

But despite being highly surveiled I dont know of a single website that is blocked in UK.

... end removed

Please have a look at this webpage http://en.wikipedia....atch_Foundation

It says a.o. "Since 2010, blocking Internet users from accessing the content on this list is mandatory for all UK based ISPs that want to be eligible for contracts with government agencies and other public bodies."

To be confirmed: 'however the BBC has blocked non-UK IP addresses from accessing a lot of them.'

Thanks for the wiki link - I only see one URL mentioned and that wasn't an outright ban (scorpions wiki album cover) and that was by only some ISP's who chose to block it. It was not a mandatory ban from on high. I don't see this happening enmasse and again it's very easy to circumvent.

I don't follow your point about the BBC, they are not an ISP and technically in no position to block non UK IP's from accessing any other hosted content except their own hosted content (which they do regularly - blocking iplayer etc. Presumably because they think only license fee payers should be able to view it).

I was a bit unclear as I was still checking/reading. Indeed it's the usual, BBC blocks some content from non-UK IP addresses. Obviously for very sound reasons.

[craigt3365]

Perhaps the government would have better results if it taught children to inform on their parents. It works in North Korea. May PM Abhisit can speak to the heir apparent of the wonderful North Koreans and get some pointers on how to quash this internet threat.

Geriatrickid: I have a question for you. What would happen in the US, or any first world country for that matter (France, UK, Germany, etc.), if you had a web page proposing the violent overthrow of the nation and the killing of the PM? If I am not mistaken, isn't that what some of the red websites propose?

I don't mean to start a huge argument here...just curious if you know the ramifications of something like this. I know the answer for China. Your family will be billed for the bullet....

He's being ironic.

For sure...but I like his posts...as well as yours. And would be curious to hear your point of view on my question.

I doubt getting kids to rat out their parents here would work...too much respect for elders...well, most of the time!

Edit: One reason for my question is I read a report about a guy in the US who made a remark that he hated Obama and would love to kill him. He said this at a car dealership. The employee called the police and he was arrested not far away. I know that would never happen here...but how far can you go in most other first world countries?????

Edited October 15, 2010 by craigt3365

[mythBuster]

Wondering how the poster boys of the Coup d' etat "The Nation" must feel.

Any regime curbing free speech is illegal. Any leader that needs to protected by laws is illegal. Ask Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Amehdinejad, Kim il Jung or Than Shwe. Let;s hope on a boycott of Thailand. Thailand has become the dirty man of Asia.

[rubl]

Thanks for the wiki link - I only see one URL mentioned and that wasn't an outright ban (scorpions wiki album cover) and that was by only some ISP's who chose to block it. It was not a mandatory ban from on high. I don't see this happening enmasse and again it's very easy to circumvent.

... end removed

It's not strange you can't find a large list of websites blocked in the UK. Any blocked are not publicized. The IWF site only says "The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) provides a dynamic list of individual web pages with child sexual abuse content to its members, companies within their group and Licensees that have the ability to filter and block access to such content." Probably those who get the list are under clear legal obligations not to disclose.

Also interesting is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom

future restriction are basicly possible and it depends on the policy of the Home Office (status 2006/2007).

As I said before internet censorship is not a specific Thai problem. It's a general problem the world has to come to terms with.

[rubl]

Wondering how the poster boys of the Coup d' etat "The Nation" must feel.

Any regime curbing free speech is illegal. Any leader that needs to protected by laws is illegal. Ask Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Amehdinejad, Kim il Jung or Than Shwe. Let;s hope on a boycott of Thailand. Thailand has become the dirty man of Asia.

Most countries curb free speech is some way. Some more than others. In the UK "The Home Office has previously indicated that it has considered requiring ISPs to block access to articles on the web deemed to be “glorifying terrorismâ€, within the meaning of the new Terrorism Act 2006, saying "However, our legislation as drafted provides the flexibility to accommodate a change in Government policy should the need ever arise.""

I guess this means the red-shirt Prachatai could be blocked in the UK making it the dirty man in Europe ?

[rayw]

Can someone please educate me as I seem to confuse the definitions of democracy and communist.......

The simple question of where will it all end one would assume to be obvious unless you are the ones in control or simply do not care.

Communism is just a political genre and like capitalism is too so nothing to do with democracy itself. You can and have had democratically elected Communist governments (Italy and Austria I believe are two examples in the past that immediately come to mind). All democracy means is that the people elect a government of their choice from a broad base of different genre political parties or individuals and in a true democracy only those with more than 50% of the public vote get elected. They can democratically elect extreme right or left wing too as TRUE democracy should make all political genres available to vote for else it is restrictive democracy. As to dictatorships (or complete lack of democracy if you like) I am pretty sure there have been as many if not more right wing dictatorships in the world than left wing ones, Hitler's Germany is one such classic example and Spain's General Franco regime too plus many more like more recently Pinochet. Nothing wrong with Communism or Capitalism if that is what the people want democratically and that they can within a constitutional period, or ruling, elect them out if not happy with what they are doing. It is dictatorships that are wrong and should be fought against everywhere, power is only given by the people not money and/or bully boy tactics.

Coming back on topic Abhist being raise in the UK should know better than to even have an ICT let alone give it more powers, sure Thaksin was no better in that respect either but you should know better Abhist from your background. It is childish in the extreme to control the internet like this for adults, sure as adults we should control what our children have access too but the Government are not there to treat the Thai people like children and the people should not tolerate it. Such lack of freedom of speech kills democracy, lets not forget that. In the UK (and most "democratic" countries) as Abhist will know you can say as adults anything about anybody without censorship but are subject to libel laws quite rightly, so lets have the same here as it is all about freedom. So come on Abhist lets kill the ICT now before it makes Thailand look a laughing stock and dictatorial.

I love this country but am merely a guest here but still feel able and happy to make constructive criticisms of where things are so unnecessarily going very wrong here in THailand.

Edited October 15, 2010 by rayw

[DickFarang]

The line between what people can say and what they cannot say is blurred. People might start to censor themselves because of fear

This happens already, including on Thai Visa forums.

Most annoyingly is how ICT just simply blocks huge websites rather then specific pages. Tired of seeing that stupid ICT page on big useful websites because of some idiot ruining it for everyone else.

If the government thinks Thai people are too stupid to see the information then there's not much that can be done about it.

Oh and lets not forget the most important thing. The more websites ICT blocks, the more funding they need to manage it all. Lets not forget who they originally put in charge of ICT. It was some Thai industrial robotics professor, such useful skills and insights in the web haha.

Good news, as there are many criminals lurking around in the internet.

Same with any other public system. Criminals use phones, the BTS and MRT but you're not complaining about those. Not really sure what your point is. Would you also like to ban kitchen knives because they can be used to stab people?

Edit: I'd like to point out also that the ICTs censorship doesn't stop criminals at all.

“Would you also like to ban kitchen knives because they can be used to stab people?”

Screwdrivers are dangerous weapons too, and ... and ...

[marquess]

What pisses me off the most is on the porn tube sites they'll always block the movies I want to download the most and leave the ones I'm not that bothered about unblocked. It's almost as if they can read my mind!

Yeah like they are doing things for our own good!

[rubl]

"I think the government can track you down if they want to, which is worrying,"

Not specific Thailand.

From Foxnews site 14th Oct 2010: "Federal Agents Urged to 'Friend' People on Social Networks, Memo Reveals"

From EFF site 13th Oct 2010: "New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration"

[aussiejosh]

Good news, as there are many criminals lurking around in the internet.

Yes, censorship has always been used for good /fail

[sirchai]

Good news, as there are many criminals lurking around in the internet.

Bit naive are we ?

Not only a bit to be honest. :jap:

[rubl]

Internet control, a global problem !

From the Guardian, 14th of Oct 2010:

"WikiLeaks says funding has been blocked after government blacklisting

Founder Julian Assange hits out at decision by Moneybookers, which collects the whistleblowing website's donations

The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks claims that it has had its funding blocked and that it is the victim of financial warfare by the US government.

Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist.

"

[sirchai]

Land of the Free

Thailand does not mean "Land of the Free."

The word Thai actually means people....:jap:

[MAJIC]

Freedom of speech cannot and should not be controlled, the end of freedom of speech is the end of freedom itself and ensures that a small number of demons have control over the masses. Not only that, but it is an utter waste of time and money blocking websites as it does not work. There isn't a single person in China with a brain who cannot access what they want via VPN / remote desktop etc to a jurisdiction where they can see as much content as any other western internet user can. China with all it's might and wealth have failed in this regard because it technically isn't possible, but the ICT thinks it can succeed, sure it can.

I wonder which government acronym is responsible for the garbage soaps where someone gets stabbed, beat up or shot in every episode normalising this behaviour. I never used to believe watching violence on TV had any bearinng on actual violence commited, but I've revised my opinion since coming to Thailand to live and seen what I've seen. Dealing with this garbage TV would be a better use of time and money than trying and susequentty failing to block internet sites and spying on its own citizens (yes I know this goes on the world over and the UK is the most surveiled country on earth). But despite being highly surveiled I dont know of a single website that is blocked in UK.

IMO this coupled with the recent refusal to adopt English as the second language in schools is more proof of those in power using every stoneage trick in the book to keep the masses uneducated and uninformed for easier subjugation. God forbid the masses here are informed and educated, nope can't allow that.

Its News to me!

Can you produce the Evidence on that statement.?

Edited October 15, 2010 by MAJIC

[Robby nz]

Would all the defenders of free speech out there be happy if someone who had a hate against them built a web site encouraging others to not only hate them also but to kill them, their families, burn their houses, boycott their businesses ETC?

Or would you defend their right to free speech?

Some of these things have happened to The PM of this country, parroting what was said from a certain stage a while back.

These things need to be blocked because there are always idiots out there who will take up that sort of suggestion.

As for porn sites, those who haunt them may well in time want a taste of the real thing and the only way to get it may be to have a go at someones kids, possibly yours.

After all the porn sites show that woman and kids really like being abused right?

There are and always will be some things that should be removed or blocked.

There will also be those who are given the job of doing the blocking and just because their judgement is different from yours dosent mean you are right and they are wrong.

[sydneyjed]

Good news, as there are many criminals lurking around in the internet.

There are criminals lurking everywhere. Haven't you grasped the fact that one of the basic tenets of democracy is freedom of speech. People who fear freedom of speech have something to hide.

You can say what you like about me - I have a clear conscience. Have you?

The australian t.v. channel ABC (Four Corners)ran a documentary a few months back on thai politics highlighting censorship of news/media based on draconian laws that are used as an excuse to silence the majority ...alarming!!

[Markaew]

Good news, as there are many criminals lurking around in the internet.

Bit naive are we ?

I've watched chantorn posts before. I believe the intent is just to get a rise out of farangs.

[Markaew]

"...People might start to censor themselves because of fear," she said, adding that Thailand could become a country where "no one wants to say anything".

I think this has definitely been on the increase over the last few years.

Anyone starting to think it feels a bit like the Taksin era with all this heightened censorship?

The material being censored may be different, but the obsession with maintaining power and the status quo seems pretty much the same.

Limiting information to the Thai population keeps them dummied down. Works well to keep the culture intact.

[moskito]

“Would you also like to ban kitchen knives because they can be used to stab people?”

so what do you think why they eat with spoon and fork in Thailand, instead of fork and knife?

[Markaew]

Greetings J1V,

My 11 years of Life, Wife,etc here in the Land of Smiles = Tons of examples of exactly as required to confirm your wise observation - you are right on the button, IMHO.

But I can't tell you now, in case they hear.... )

regards,

Brewsta

Some of the "elite" (pick just about any group you want) refer to the common "rural Thai" as "buffalo". Actually, it should be more like "Mushroom". Keep them in the dark and feed them b.s.

While I have absolutely nothing to base this on, I am hoping (the operative word here), that there is a new generation of Thai coming up that will eventually step up and say: "Ok, enough of this old b.s. is enough!", and then have the numbers, and the will, to make the changes that desperately need to be changed. I'm a "Child of the 60's", so I can remember the changes that my generation brought about in American thinking. Granted, not all of them were good, and some downright bad, but overall they made the "old establishment" of America sit up and take note, and realize that the "good old days" were gone and a new age was being ushered in by the young.

Do I actually LOOK for that to happen in Thailand? Honestly, not really, but I'm an Aquarian, which means I'm an eternal optimist, so there's always hope that it will.

And you think the present American culture is a good thing? Why are you here? There are many here that don't like the culture of their home country, including me.

[TheWhiteFella]

Thailand should be more concerned with quality than content,, at home 4G is the rage and in Thailand they are still quibbling about 3G which will be obsolete when we get it,

[swerver]

Land of the Free

Invasive Cyber Technologies and Internet Privacy:

Big Brother is only a “Ping” or Mouse Click Away

As they walked along the busy, yellow-lit tiers of offices, Anderton said: “You’re acquainted with the theory of pre-crime, of course. I presume we can take that for granted.” - Philip K. Dick, The Minority Report

What do Google, the CIA and a host of so-called “predictive behavior” start-ups have in common?

They’re interested in you, or more specifically, whether your online interests - from Facebook to Twitter posts, and from Flickr photos to YouTube and blog entries - can be exploited by powerful computer algorithms and subsequently transformed into “actionable intelligence.”

And whether the knowledge gleaned from an IP address is geared towards selling useless junk or entering a name into a law enforcement database matters not a whit. Its all “just data” and “buzz” goes the mantra, along what little is left of our privacy and our rights.

Increasingly, secret state agencies ranging from the CIA to the National Security Agency are pouring millions of dollars into data-mining firms which claim they have a handle on who you are or what you might do in the future.

And to top it off, the latest trend in weeding-out dissenters and nonconformists from the social landscape will soon be invading a workplace near you; in fact, it already has.

October 11, 2010

Welcome to the sinister world of “Pre-crime” where capitalist grifters, drug- and torture-tainted spy shops are all laboring mightily to stamp out every last vestige of free thought in the heimat.<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">