This is the perspective from the UK's Independent newspaper.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/thailand-backs-twitter-censorship-policy-6297296.html

Related topic - I was looking at reviews of digital cameras and got routed to the ICT Ministry website, then it just stopped. No sex, no nudes, don't know why it happened but I guess they are censoring so much here...

This also happens in Norway. Whilst waiting for a flight in Oslo, I logged on using the public computer in the lounge area to check an update on one of my artwork websites. It had been blocked because of "content". When I looked further into it, the word "nude" within some text about classic nude studies, was the trigger. Had I used the Norwegian term "akt" (same as German) for the nude in artwork, it would not have been a problem. So do I rewrite the text using other words? .. or just accept that my sites are not viewable from a Norwegian airport computer. I guess my images would be offensive to Muslims, who are pulling all the strings now. It only takes one to see something and kick up a stink.

Back on topic please. More arguments will wind up in the trash bin.

The only thing you need to know about this issue is that Twitter is banned in China.....

Jeerawan Boonperm, the permanent secretary at the Information and Communication Technology Ministry in Thailand, said......

]

" last week's announcement is a "welcome development." She said the Ministry will contact Twitter to discuss how they might be able to collaborate, according to the Bangkok Post.

.........Meanwhile the Information and Technology Communication Minister Anudith Nakornthap says:

"The ICT ministry will continue to ensure no person or group uses social networks to violate the law. I agree with Twitter's new policy but we will not be involved with Twitter's censorship."

Somebody should introduce these people.

"The ICT Minister will continueto ensure no Person or Group uses Social Networks to violate the law"

Of course Censorship on Twitter,will not apply to convicted felons living abroad and controlling Thai Governments,and inciting by Propaganda to their own Private Armies, via this medium!

"It's a good idea that Twitter has this policy to take care and prevent its users from violating the law, because freedom of expression must not violate other people's rights or the laws in each country,"

All people are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Props to Animal Farm, George Orwell.

mmm...What about laws voted while there was a Dictatorship.

IMO companies providing communication platforms should not be enabling censorship. Period.

This forum is censored. How do you feel about that?

Are you saying that State Intelligence publication should not be censored? Terrorist information? Illegal acts?

Twitter is not a forum. It is a tool for communicating.

If someone writes something that is illegal - no matter how, defamation, LM, etc, then the laws in a country can be applied towards that person. If it is done via a book, a newspaper, on TV, radio, Facebook, Twitter, TVF, or by speaking in public does not matter.

Nazi literature is banned in Germany. I don't agree with that, nor do I agree with the LM laws in Thailand. But those are the laws in Germany and Thailand respectively.

Are you sure that you can write anything on a TV forum and it doesn't matter. I believe that's absolutely not true.

Why does this forum have moderators? Several reasons, just one is to ensure that comments written by TV members are not libellous / to remove libellous somments quickly. Why, becaue the forum owner can be prosecuted if libellous comments are left on the webboard.

Agree with your completely, and as I said, twitter is not a forum. Twitter is not libel for tweets.

Press freedom? Thailand ranks about 158 out of 185 countries, Tells you everything , does it not?

The latest Press Freedom Index shows Thailand at 137. Communist Cambodia is in at number 117.

Anybody that works with the Thais know they are absolute control freaks. This twitter thing shouldn't be a surprise. And interesting that the western news media compares Thailand and China regimes as the same. Repressive, kills protestors, etc.

I don't "tweet" or use Facebook. But I have to say that restricting social networks is just a way to keep people in the dark. The governments who back these sort of so called tools, must be afraid of the people who use them. China is also very down on social networks. I'm in China now, and you have to have VPN just to play the videos on Yahoo. It just continues to get a bit worse, with Big Brother looking over your shoulder. I wish Thailand was like it was 15 years ago, internet service would be about the same, LOL.

"

The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

-John Gilmore

Why are you all complaining, it only blocks what people shouldn't be writing anyway.

"Things that people shouldn't be writing"

There are no laws in my country telling me what I should and shouldn't be saying.

What country is that?

On Monday, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said in a report that the current Thai government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had presided over a worsening of Internet censorship.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-thailand-blocks-royal-insult-web.html

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