Crackdown On Internet

[astral]

He said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is now planning to supervise the crackdown on pornography and has already demanded to see clear results from relevant authorities by December.

At which point Mr. Big will be declaring the Internet free of porn, no doubt.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A bit like King Canute telling the sea to go back.

He got his feet wet!!

[Galong]

Thais say that they've never been colonized. That's incorrect. They've been colonized from the inside by the Chinese.

Censor the internet, censor the news, censor anything that resembles freedom... sounds a bit like Burma to me.

[John K]

BANGKOK: -- Thailand could serve as a regional hub for crackdowns said a normally well informed source yesterday.

With numerous crackdowns ongoing, Thailand could share it's expertise in the field of starting crackdowns.

With crackdowns on internet use, corruption, drugs, drinking, smoking, poverty and numerous others Thailand must be considered a world authority on starting crackdowns.

Obviously, to make sense of these crackdowns outside help will be required as they only seem to be announced without any further action being taken.

What is needed next is probably a crackdown on crackdowns.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I could not agree more with you. I think the word crackdown is actually a Thai word that just happens to resemble English. loosely translated “You pay me.”

[frenchFARANGbkk]

5.000.000 to be blocked...... :D

Someone's gonna be busy for the next 20 years!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why so? Do you think a guy will have to push the button to block people trying to access "illegal" websites as was doing the guy working for UBC to put the red screen instead of advertising?

Will he be the same guy?!

;-)

;-)

[benlee53]

Is something escapeing me here or does this guy have time to block 5,000,000 web sites and solve the problems in southern thailand at the same time.this dude is a superman .My hats off to him if he can do either one ................

[Apothecary]

But it seems that M. PM doesn't know that any website will be forever available with a good proxy!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Until they block the proxy.

[phuketrichard]

What I object to his he has now listed my email adress as spam and has been blocked. Nothing to do with porn.

He is setting himself up as I am the only one that knows what is good for HIS children! And is is treating all thai's as children. Blocking porn... come on, every small village and hamlet has a mamasan baan. There are more of them then computers in this country.

Telling you when you can buy a beer and when you can't. When you can buy gas.

This country is tring to emulate Burma and the thai's, ( I hope) will not stand for it. they just held the anniversary of the oct 14th revolt, could one more be comming soon.

[Schauerte]

As a father of a seventeen year old boy, taller and bigger than I am as well as faster, in todays world , it is quite a problem for parents to control their children at that age . It is worse in Europe and most probably also in the USA.

So to control internet porn is as far as I think as a parent a very good idea . I am not able to stop my son from watching internet porn in a shop, school or anywhere else except home.

Critics complain about "Freedom and Democracy" , well, they should go where they find these ideals, Europe? USA? Where? I do not agree with a lot of decisions, the PM forced onto the Thais, but indicencies like child abuse, pornography must be avoided even if it means to reduce the "freedom and democracy" for some.

[Thailand]

Earwig o again

[LivinLOS]

The bigger picture is who decides what is considered offensive.. What form of review and redress is there to a blocked site.. Who is watching the watchers..

I noticed recently that adult friend finder has been blocked in Thailand (on my ISP anyway).. Why ?? Not a pornographic site.. Had to be over 18 to be a member.. So now its illegal to hook up online ??

When a site is accidentally blocked can you imagine the headache in unblocking it ??

[humgwm]

tuskin, Not enought chuckwow in his diet.

[Diablo Bob]

Well, I guess I will only get the Bangkok Post now on the internet! With the love affair between The Nation and Toxin, it is probably one of the first to be blocked!

[Soi Oz]

Plus, if you really need the porn, take a trip to Panthip or Silom Road. Plenty is available there... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Which is exactly what makes this 'crackdown' so ridiculous.... not that I really care.

Just because people are guests doesn't mean they have no right to criticise. Anyway, criticism of Thailand falls on deaf ears so its usually a waste of breath (or bits.)

[pascharay]

sex is banned while shooting people or hacking them up in movies is fine. Not even XXX. pornography whether you like it or not is the frontline of free speech. I thought there were not than a billion sites on the Web.

Reading pornography leads to the reading of more pornography - Gore Vidal

[ChiangMaiMike]

Will this further slow down our Internet connections??

ADSL speed here up north is almost a joke... Often get only 56kbps download speed...

[slim]

5.000.000 to be blocked......   

Someone's gonna be busy for the next 20 years!

The team who hit the UBC red screen of death buttons are available

[John K]

Will this further slow down our Internet connections??

ADSL speed here up north is almost a joke... Often get only 56kbps download speed...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think so, and yes it is slow. at 512 you should get 1 meg every 8-10 seconds.

[Thailand]

Will this further slow down our Internet connections??

ADSL speed here up north is almost a joke... Often get only 56kbps download speed...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

33.2 here in deepest darkest Hang Dong, sometimes as good as 16! Steam powered internet!

[BlackJack]

if you look closely at whats happening you will see a pattern

The internet allowed freedom of information and its distribution for the first time in history

never before has freedom of speech such as this been in the hands of the masses

it has obviously scared the pants of the powers that be not only in Thailand but also in the rest ofthe world (read China)

so how to control what the masses see -

invent things - misdirection

porn, rape, abuse, inequality - in Thailand is an everyday event - live sex shows, selling bodies to feed families, servants paid low wages and abused - everyday

its OK TIT

but freedom of speech - you cannot have it

undermines the Government and egos

so invent reasons to govern it

THe patriot act, Predator software (rushed in USA bill after 911), Spyware, Cookies - all tracking your move and your moneys move legally

but for every good there is bad -

hackers, engineers writing secret codes in, diverters, etc

it is possible that one day some day a disgruntled employee will write a program that is like a cancer and it will eat away the proxy blocks and all the data stored on people

if their real smart the program will also eat the backup tapes

just a thought

[John K]

it is possible that one day some day a disgruntled employee will write a program that is like a cancer and it will eat away the proxy blocks and all the data stored on people

if their real smart the program will also eat the backup tapes

just a thought

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

real good ones will leave a false screen on the blockes computers so they wont know it has hapened.

[jef]

seems to be a strange obsession with poo in that last post...

anyway, it can't be too bad a thing... if you really can't survive without your daily dose of internet porn, why not get your mates to email you some?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When your friend's website will be blocked without you understanding why, because at first sight you don't see anything wrong in his wording, but Toxin's friends do you will understand. That's named CENSORSHIP. Remember senator Mc Carthy?

Let me correct this: you will not understand this neither

[John K]

A new resolution introduced in the U.S. Senate offers political backing to the Bush administration by slamming a United Nations effort to exert more influence over the Internet.

Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, said his nonbinding resolution would protect the Internet from a takeover by the United Nations that's scheduled to be discussed at a summit in Tunisia next month.

"The Internet is likely to face a grave threat" at the summit, Coleman said in a statement on Monday. "If we fail to respond appropriately, we risk the freedom and enterprise fostered by this informational marvel and end up sacrificing access to information, privacy and protection of intellectual property we have all depended on."

If ratified, Coleman's resolution would assure the Bush administration and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) of political support on Capitol Hill during the negotiations at the World Summit on the Information Society. Similar support has already come from both senior Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

At the heart of this international political spat is the unique influence that the U.S. federal government enjoys over Internet addresses and the master database of top-level domain names--a legacy of the Internet's origins years ago. The Bush administration recently raised objections to the proposed addition of .xxx as a red-light district for pornographers, for instance, a veto power that no other government is able to wield.

During a series of meetings organized by the United Nations, ministers from dozens of other countries have raised objections and demanded more influence. Suggestions that have been made include new mandates for "consumer protection," the power to levy taxes on domain names to pay for "universal access," and folding ICANN into the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency. As far back as 1999, U.N. agencies have mulled imposing taxes on Internet e-mail.

Coleman's resolution endorses the principles--effectively maintaining the status quo--that the Bush administration announced in June. But he ventured even further by warning that if governance functions were handed to bureaucrats from oppressive nations, the Internet would become "an instrument of censorship and political suppression." Business groups have raised similar objections, warning of censorship from nations such as China, Iran and Syria.

In December 2004, Coleman called for the resignation of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying that his subcommittee's investigations had unearthed evidence of far-ranging fraud inside the sprawling bureaucracy. A former chief prosecutor in Minnesota, Coleman is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been investigating the oil-for-food scandal.

Source http://news.zdnet.com

[otherstuff1957]

For most people the issue here is not banning pornography, it's WHAT ELSE is being banned at the same time. The internet in Thailand is already censored, either no-one told this to the PM before he announced this current crackdown or else a typical bad translation didn't specify that they are expanding the current censorship rather than just starting to censor things.

I encountered this recently when I was trying to access another forum and got a message that said that the site was blocked because of its POLITICAL CONTENT! I don't remember which site it was, but it was just people talking about life, not Muslims or Communists, etc... I did a bit of research and found that the blocking for that site was actually coming from my dial-up provider - KSC - not the Thai government and that by switching to M-Web I was able to get around the block.

I think quite a few of us are worried about the future and what will happen to freedom of speech in many countries, not just Thailand. As governments learn how to control the internet they gain tremendous power to control opinion and thought. I, for one, don't trust ANY government with that much power.

[clevenp]

It sure is a hot topic and many members and guests are reading this

making sure rape and child abuse is getting of the media is correct but the hypocrasy about "beating women" is for me a big problem ... at 5 pm in the prime time for childeren to watch television it is normal to see at least once every 15 min how a man beats a woman ....

maybe as farang we don't understand this culture but it is disgusting to see this happening and to see how boys are taught it is OK to beat women ...

what is the main problem is the ethics and how they want to teach/educate the youngsters what values there are ... this is currently not done and the ones with the money can actually do whatever they want (even in public bars (hotel not named) where once a friendly/helpfull person told me to leave with my girlfriend as one of those richer (!) people was paying a lot of attention to my girlfriend and though he could "buy" any service)

the reactionairy way of the Thai government to control everything is making a lot of investers and businesspeople nervous ... and it will fail at the end as a violent reaction will come from within but then this great country will be at the other end of democratie and freedom and it will be ugly ....

Investors will look at countries like Singapore or even Cambodia that is rebuilding its infrastructure and its image, to poor money in ...

I feel in many ways happy to live in this marvelous country and I am trying from my end to show by example that mutual respect in marriage and towards others is the only correct way ... (as just raving about it will not help anybody )

maybe by taking actions ourselfs will slowly make a better world ... maybe taking baby steps but at least taking them instead of turning away and telling talk about it (politicials are just doing this so are we as bad as them?)

my 2 cents ....

maybe I will get a lot of hatemail now but so be it ...

Philip

[najene]

This really worries me. I don't care about porn but I do worry about censorship of the internet.

[CBinParadise]

[...]

Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, said his nonbinding resolution would protect the Internet from a takeover by the United Nations that's scheduled to be discussed at a summit in Tunisia next month.

[...]

At the heart of this international political spat is the unique influence that the U.S. federal government enjoys over Internet addresses and the master database of top-level domain names--a legacy of the Internet's origins years ago. The Bush administration recently raised objections to the proposed addition of .xxx as a red-light district for pornographers, for instance, a veto power that no other government is able to wield.

During a series of meetings organized by the United Nations, ministers from dozens of other countries have raised objections and demanded more influence. Suggestions that have been made include new mandates for "consumer protection," the power to levy taxes on domain names to pay for "universal access," and folding ICANN into the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency. As far back as 1999, U.N. agencies have mulled imposing taxes on Internet e-mail.

[...]

Source http://news.zdnet.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Be careful --- ZD tech journalists are typically clueless. To set some facts straight:

(1) There was no veto that happened over .xxx although there was inddeed influence-wielding at work.

(2) Coleman's "fix" is probably worse than the disease

(3) the UN/EU fixes are definitely much worse than the problems they purport to solve.

Finally, the most brilliant and worthwhile statement on this whole controversy came from one of the Internet's true pioneers, Esther Dyson:

"The main thrust of [the governance controversy] is that ICANN – which sets policy for the Domain Name System and which I chaired in its start-up phase, 1998-2000 – is fundamentally US-dominated and should be brought under proper, legitimate, international control, accountable to all the people of the world.

I beg to disagree. You can argue about the details, but yes, ICANN is to some extent under US control, even though it has a thoroughly international board and lots of other checks and balances. It mostly acts on its own but it does have a contract with the US government tat gives it what little authority it has… plus general agreement by most domain-name registrars and registries to follow its rules for lack of any other authority. You may think that's a slightly unstable situation, and indeed it is. The US would *like* to give up control (ICANN is a hot potato), but only to an organization it trusts.

There’s the rub. The US doesn’t – and personally I don’t – trust any other organization to take over ICANN, although we have different reasons. (I also know that if the US tried to impose its will on the Internet more broadly through ICANN, it would meet proper, quick and strong resistance.)

Indeed, the very whiff of illegitimacy around ICANN is its saving grace. Suppose some body emerged that was generally considered to be legitimate, and that could tightly control the DNS through ICANN.

If it was legitimate, what would stop it from doing much more? It could quickly set new, broad rules governing “appropriate” content, intellectual property rights, “suitability” for domain name ownership… and because it was legitimate, it would be hard to stop it.

The biggest danger for ICANN is indeed that it become “legitimate” and way too powerful. Its current slightly off-kilter authority keeps it from amassing power and from attracting the inevitable power-hungry forces that would abuse that power. In short, I’m not so much in favor of US control as I am in favor of the current status quo of uncertain, dis-armed control."

[WhiteShiva]

I encountered this recently when I was trying to access another forum and got a message that said that the site was blocked because of its POLITICAL CONTENT!  I don't remember which site it was, but it was just people talking about life, not Muslims or Communists, etc...  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And even if it was, why should it have been banned? Personally I couldn't give a toss if there is pornography on the net, but once the government starts to decide what you can and cannot see, and then continiously changes the yardstick as they see fit, society is headed down a slippery slope.

Edited October 19, 2005 by WhiteShiva

[griser]

My guess is that this CRACKDOWN has little to do with pornography and more to do with the unrest in the south and political censorship.

He's not stupid, he knows he can't wipe out internet porn... Too many new web sites will pop up to get around the blocks. This is only a crackdown on terrorist and opposing political view web sites in disguise!

Greg

[paauw33]

5.000.000 to be blocked...... :D

Someone's gonna be busy for the next 20 years!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not jet, just block all sites starting with "www" and unblock sites ending with com.th

That's the trick...

[Nam Kao]

Dudes, eureka! look at my avatar

Toxin had a secret meeting w/ Bush! This is all Bushs fault!

Boy i need a group hug with some liberals and Kim il jon

this is weird man, i need a John Lennon song and quick!

sorry i am so flaked out, any peace marches tomoro?