Gay Internet Censorship Shenanigans

[Ijustwannateach]

In the last week, the government censorship filtering software has claimed two gay Thailand sites that I occasionally read: "Gaybutton" and the "Sawadee" forum. Neither of these sites was particularly pornographic or visually rude (they would occasionally put up photos of gay guys in undies in threads, that's about it) or explicit; though the Sawadee site had thumbnail links to a site selling some dodgy videos.

There was a theory circulating that disgruntled posters from the sites might have been the ones who reported them to the government censor. If so, shame on them. Gays need all the resources and information we can get, and no one profits by such mischief.

Of course, there's no need to even ask whether or not due process or any set of standards is involved here- after all, the government theoretically has *COLLEGE STUDENTS* doing their morality screening. And as all of us here on the forum know, Thai college students are completely spiritual beings who never drink and are 100% abstinent from sex. We can rely on them.

"Steven"

[simcity]

yes i saw that , just today ! one day soon will be gaydar and gay.com ! i am sure they get more points ( the student ) to get bad bad link ! and they get paid for it too

[elephantspike]

I'm a resident of the USA, and that is also where my site is hosted and served from, so I'm just running it as usual. Folks inside Thailand just need to do what the Chinese have been doing for years; connect through a proxy server. I have one poster in Thailand who reports no block when connecting through ADSL.

In the meantime, I have re-opened the old ezboard for posting as well.

[simcity]

you can logg in sawadee this way !

//edited by Mod, for security reasons. PM members for info plz

i think it is the old one ! dates do not look right

Edited March 5, 2006 by ChrisP

[buadhai]

Folks inside Thailand just need to do what the Chinese have been doing for years; connect through a proxy server.

Unfortunately, this only works some of the time. This is because the Thai government is now sniffing packets and censoring incoming content. So, even if you're able to reach a site via a proxy, the government can still block the content. So, what you need is a proxy that will encrypt the content it forwards back to you.

[cdnvic]

Just please don't discuss evading the block here as sites who do this risk being blocked themselves.

cv

[toptuan]

I couldn't logon to Thaivisa.com for about three hours this afternoon, and thought "Yep, they did it! Stepped over the line! Gone!" Whew, nice to logon again. I suddenly realize how much I depend on this website for late-breaking news, interpretation of recent events, etc. (The newsclippings section always serves as a very practical source of news, especially with the current political unsettledness.)

Moderator/Cdnvic I have a question about this potentiality, but due to your warning above, may I PM you about it?

[cdnvic]

I couldn't logon to Thaivisa.com for about three hours this afternoon, and thought "Yep, they did it! Stepped over the line! Gone!" Whew, nice to logon again. I suddenly realize how much I depend on this website for late-breaking news, interpretation of recent events, etc. (The newsclippings section always serves as a very practical source of news, especially with the current political unsettledness.)

Moderator/Cdnvic I have a question about this potentiality, but due to your warning above, may I PM you about it?

Yep

cv