Thailand to start cracking down on illegal online content

[jspill]

Every month a new headline, Thailand to start cracking down on [insert generic issue]

[Amras]

The issue will be defamation of people or companies. The ridiculous defamation laws mean that if you say, "so and so is a ****", all they have to prove is the tiniest amount of damage, and you have commited a CRIMINAL offence.

That would basically stop all internet discussion boards, and put a complete stop to thinhs like people discussing "I think that Thai rice is *****," be it good bad or indifferent. You simply won't be able to discuss anything. Political discussion would disappear in a moment, because the moment you made any inference about anyone, the webmasters would be legally obliged to take it down. Quite how Thaivisa survives without a lot more censorship I have no idea. Thailand would become a country where your statements would be limited to the spoken word, and only between those you trust implicitly.

I was thinking, does this mean they are going to block access to tripadvisor from within Thailand? As that has the largest amount of reviews on Thai companies available and many are not good, especially if they are bad.

Is this for real?

(Regarding standard torrents.)

They'd have to block everysingle IP of where the trackers are located, which is an insanely difficult and expensive task. The US, Australia etc can't do (and they have the big media ie Hollywood pushing them to do it), so how Thailand thinks they can do it has got me. Unless Thailand ends up like China..which is a scary thought.

The issue will be defamation of people or companies. The ridiculous defamation laws mean that if you say, "so and so is a ****", all they have to prove is the tiniest amount of damage, and you have commited a CRIMINAL offence.

That would basically stop all internet discussion boards, and put a complete stop to thinhs like people discussing "I think that Thai rice is *****," be it good bad or indifferent. You simply won't be able to discuss anything. Political discussion would disappear in a moment, because the moment you made any inference about anyone, the webmasters would be legally obliged to take it down. Quite how Thaivisa survives without a lot more censorship I have no idea. Thailand would become a country where your statements would be limited to the spoken word, and only between those you trust implicitly.

Okay, the sky is not falling. I'm sure a prominent site like this is reviewed to some degree for offenses or at least the mods are aware of what should and should not be allowed to be posted. This article sounds to me about increasing the number of sites that are blocked, stopping people from hosting porno sites from within Thailand and catching those that host copyrighted materials and facilitate their download. The ability to do what you are talking about would be nearly impossible to accomplish and extremely expensive.

I for one wouldn't download torrents and allow their upload to other users... yes that means if you download you would be considered a leecher. Distributing copyrighted materials would be an easy offense to nail someone with by tracking through the IP host. I'm sure they are capable of getting that information from True and other IPs even now.

At the moment I wouldn't worry. If you throttle your upload speed to something reasonable and it's not on 24 hours a day, it would be limiting the chance to raise a red flag on the system so to say. At least in Australia, when friends got warnings for uploading large amounts of data, it was 'we suspect you are sharing torrents' sort of warnings. But they continued doing it and nothing happened.

Thailand can block individual sites that are found, reported etc, but trying to get rid of torrents, or stop them is an impossible task. The resources and organisation required would be huge. Unless they do what the US did and just trial a few 'public cases' to prove a point, and sadly I would assume it's easier to target the 'overseas' residents, rather than locals and make examples of them. That's a scary thought (so put the internet in a Thais name).

For know if you want to see if the ISP throttles torrent connections you can use this. http://lifehacker.com/5691489/how-can-i-find-out-if-my-isp-is-limiting-my-download-speed

Also, you don't need to use a full VPN service, which could raise alarms. Use a proxy service ONLY for the bit torrent client. Essentially your not by-passing any internet filters the ISP has then (for all your general web traffic), but keeping your p2p downloads anonymous.

[Shagz]

Is that photo a likeness of the average TV poster one wonders...

cant figure out if thats one funny looking gentleman or a woman with a "tash"....either way that "person" says raving axe murdering serial killer to me...

now now can't judge a book by it's cover although that one is pretty scary indeed haha ;P

[GentlemanJim]

_{What about using a proxy to watch tv shows on Hulu, Netflix, etc ? With these sites they wont allow downloading you can only watch programs with good shows.}

_{If Im watching a Tv show with a proxy should I expect the police to crash down my door?}

_{Im just watching movies and tv shows because Thai tv is not entertainment it is boring}

Only if you are a farang with a decent wedge of cash that the feds can 'liberate' from you.

[jbrain]

Is this for real?

(Regarding standard torrents.)

They'd have to block everysingle IP of where the trackers are located, which is an insanely difficult and expensive task. The US, Australia etc can't do (and they have the big media ie Hollywood pushing them to do it), so how Thailand thinks they can do it has got me. Unless Thailand ends up like China..which is a scary thought.

They have something like traffic throttling I think. They can not block every tracker IP, but they can detect whenever you start downloading a torrent and then block the down traffic.

Of course this will also block downloading legal content from torrent sites, but I guess that is the least of this governments concern.

[emanphoto]

So you want to get a VPN?

http://www.hotspotshield.com/ is already blocked.

F this man.

[unanimosity]

|s ths not discretionary censorship rather than illegal content since the only item in their list that is undisputedly illegal is copyright infringememt?

If pirated OS and applications software is as rampant as reputed, it is ironic that consumers will be blocked from visiting sites while freely using stolen software. More than one IT executive has mentioned that in the nearly inconceivable event of a software raid, they get a call in advance and reboot a few machines into open architectures.

[RogueLeader]

Use TOR.

https://www.torproject.org/

Problem solved.

[RogueLeader]

|s ths not discretionary censorship rather than illegal content since the only item in their list that is undisputedly illegal is copyright infringememt?

If pirated OS and applications software is as rampant as reputed, it is ironic that consumers will be blocked from visiting sites while freely using stolen software. More than one IT executive has mentioned that in the nearly inconceivable event of a software raid, they get a call in advance and reboot a few machines into open architectures.

Pirated software and media is sold online to Thais by people without a Thai work permit and so is in direct and illegal competition with the honest bootleggers at Pantip Plaza and the police and politicians who are their patrons.

These people don't live in Thailand so they can't be arrested and subjected to a show trial so It Must Be Stopped.

Probably within three months.

[emanphoto]

Tor is OK and I've promoted and encouraged it's use since moving here, but one has to tweak it to get Flash to work and other browser components which in doing so, then allows some access your info.

If nothing else is available, definitely Tor.

Use TOR.

https://www.torproject.org/

Problem solved.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's a better version of the OP image...

[RogueLeader]

Tor is OK and I've promoted and encouraged it's use since moving here, but one has to tweak it to get Flash to work and other browser components which in doing so, then allows some access your info.

If nothing else is available, definitely Tor.

Use TOR.

https://www.torproject.org/

Problem solved.

I don't use Flash with TOR. Flash is inherently insecure. But if you're just using it as an IP cloak, you should be OK.

[Soutpeel]

What a disaster. I am in UAE and sick of getting the dreaded message "Blocked site". Now I have to put up with the same crap in Thailand?

Den

Stop trying to look at porn then...

[gbswales]

So a problem that the major governements of the world have not been able to solve for the last 15 years is now to be solved by a "Thai Government Crackdown" - even China fails to stop it's citizens from accessing content if they are determined enough.

[denby45]

What a disaster. I am in UAE and sick of getting the dreaded message "Blocked site". Now I have to put up with the same crap in Thailand?

Den

Stop trying to look at porn then...

Thanks for the advice I wondered why I was slowly going blind. Actually you would not believe the number of websites they block here. Anything with sex or other taboo words are blocked regardless of the content. e.g. some sites are blocked because they have Essex in the title. All dating and most social websites are also blocked. Facebook and Yutube were blocked at first untill there was mass protests regarding civil liberties. Skype was also blocked to prevent loss of revenue for Etisalat. Tagged, Thaiaddicts and other sites like those are all blocked. Strange because Philippineaddicts is still accessable. Well until they find some reason to block of course.

Den

[Amras]

Is this for real?

(Regarding standard torrents.)

They'd have to block everysingle IP of where the trackers are located, which is an insanely difficult and expensive task. The US, Australia etc can't do (and they have the big media ie Hollywood pushing them to do it), so how Thailand thinks they can do it has got me. Unless Thailand ends up like China..which is a scary thought.

They have something like traffic throttling I think. They can not block every tracker IP, but they can detect whenever you start downloading a torrent and then block the down traffic.

Of course this will also block downloading legal content from torrent sites, but I guess that is the least of this governments concern.

There are ways around that. Running encrypted connections within your torrent program for one (which isn't illegal). It then doesn't identify to the ISP what the source of the download is (as it's encrypted) and in that case it isn't throttled as it's not recognized as being from ie utorrent etc. Lots of people working around this as US ISP's try to throttle people using torrents as it takes up lots of bandwidth. Easy work around though.

[Amras]

|s ths not discretionary censorship rather than illegal content since the only item in their list that is undisputedly illegal is copyright infringememt?

If pirated OS and applications software is as rampant as reputed, it is ironic that consumers will be blocked from visiting sites while freely using stolen software. More than one IT executive has mentioned that in the nearly inconceivable event of a software raid, they get a call in advance and reboot a few machines into open architectures.

In addition to the vast majority of PC and laptops in the entire country running illegal copies of Windows. It's even offered by big name shops...do you want Windows...oh you want original, but copy is cheaper.

It's all smoke and mirrors in the Governments attempts to appear to be doing something on the international stage as they've had too much bad press in recent months.

As someone else said...no other country has been able to stop it in years and years of attempts...Thailand isn't going to be able to either, without a blanket ban on the internet.

[Thai at Heart]

|s ths not discretionary censorship rather than illegal content since the only item in their list that is undisputedly illegal is copyright infringememt?

If pirated OS and applications software is as rampant as reputed, it is ironic that consumers will be blocked from visiting sites while freely using stolen software. More than one IT executive has mentioned that in the nearly inconceivable event of a software raid, they get a call in advance and reboot a few machines into open architectures.

In addition to the vast majority of PC and laptops in the entire country running illegal copies of Windows. It's even offered by big name shops...do you want Windows...oh you want original, but copy is cheaper.

It's all smoke and mirrors in the Governments attempts to appear to be doing something on the international stage as they've had too much bad press in recent months.

As someone else said...no other country has been able to stop it in years and years of attempts...Thailand isn't going to be able to either, without a blanket ban on the internet.

Forget online stuff, they can't even be bothered to stop it being sold on the main shopping streets of the capital.

[Amras]

|s ths not discretionary censorship rather than illegal content since the only item in their list that is undisputedly illegal is copyright infringememt?

If pirated OS and applications software is as rampant as reputed, it is ironic that consumers will be blocked from visiting sites while freely using stolen software. More than one IT executive has mentioned that in the nearly inconceivable event of a software raid, they get a call in advance and reboot a few machines into open architectures.

In addition to the vast majority of PC and laptops in the entire country running illegal copies of Windows. It's even offered by big name shops...do you want Windows...oh you want original, but copy is cheaper.

It's all smoke and mirrors in the Governments attempts to appear to be doing something on the international stage as they've had too much bad press in recent months.

As someone else said...no other country has been able to stop it in years and years of attempts...Thailand isn't going to be able to either, without a blanket ban on the internet.

Forget online stuff, they can't even be bothered to stop it being sold on the main shopping streets of the capital.

Ah but no body cares about that..because it's in Thailand. People have to make a living..don't they? Plus censoring the internet is a much easier task.

[Thai at Heart]

|s ths not discretionary censorship rather than illegal content since the only item in their list that is undisputedly illegal is copyright infringememt?

If pirated OS and applications software is as rampant as reputed, it is ironic that consumers will be blocked from visiting sites while freely using stolen software. More than one IT executive has mentioned that in the nearly inconceivable event of a software raid, they get a call in advance and reboot a few machines into open architectures.

In addition to the vast majority of PC and laptops in the entire country running illegal copies of Windows. It's even offered by big name shops...do you want Windows...oh you want original, but copy is cheaper.

It's all smoke and mirrors in the Governments attempts to appear to be doing something on the international stage as they've had too much bad press in recent months.

As someone else said...no other country has been able to stop it in years and years of attempts...Thailand isn't going to be able to either, without a blanket ban on the internet.

Forget online stuff, they can't even be bothered to stop it being sold on the main shopping streets of the capital.

Ah but no body cares about that..because it's in Thailand. People have to make a living..don't they? Plus censoring the internet is a much easier task.

With the added bonus of banning anything that threatens national harmony or security......

[Amras]

Forget online stuff, they can't even be bothered to stop it being sold on the main shopping streets of the capital.

Ah but no body cares about that..because it's in Thailand. People have to make a living..don't they? Plus censoring the internet is a much easier task.

With the added bonus of banning anything that threatens national harmony or security......

Ah but that seams the be the worlds most used reason for doing anything these days..US, EU, etc. Thailand's just late to the game and just caught on that, oh we can use that too..it seems to work everywhere else.

Thailand thrives on maintaining the status quo. We all know that. Big headlines for relatively meaningless content. Except when it comes to non-Thai's that is. But that's a different discussion.

(I don't hate Thailand, enjoy living here, but accept that some just tolerate us, while others don't mind us here at all. In either case, it's more enjoyable than back home, even if they are pretending. It's the law makers that I don't want to change their mind about letting us stay here...but worse case, there's other places to go...can't see that happening though).

[RogueLeader]

What a disaster. I am in UAE and sick of getting the dreaded message "Blocked site". Now I have to put up with the same crap in Thailand?

Den

Stop trying to look at porn then...

Thanks for the advice I wondered why I was slowly going blind. Actually you would not believe the number of websites they block here. Anything with sex or other taboo words are blocked regardless of the content. e.g. some sites are blocked because they have Essex in the title. All dating and most social websites are also blocked. Facebook and Yutube were blocked at first untill there was mass protests regarding civil liberties. Skype was also blocked to prevent loss of revenue for Etisalat. Tagged, Thaiaddicts and other sites like those are all blocked. Strange because Philippineaddicts is still accessable. Well until they find some reason to block of course.

Den

It's known as The Scunthorpe Problem

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

[mca]

Every month a new headline, Thailand to start cracking down on [insert generic issue]

I'm waiting for the day when Thailand takes a stand on freebase cocaine, futures trading relating to the profit made from crude oil, a certain Mexican literary movement and sweaty builders <deleted>.

"Thailand cracks down on crack, crack, crack and crack"

[Jingthing]

Every month a new headline, Thailand to start cracking down on [insert generic issue]

I'm waiting for the day when Thailand takes a stand on freebase cocaine, futures trading relating to the profit made from crude oil, a certain Mexican literary movement and sweaty builders <deleted>.

"Thailand cracks down on crack, crack, crack and crack"

That kinda cracked me up ...

[mca]

Every month a new headline, Thailand to start cracking down on [insert generic issue]

I'm waiting for the day when Thailand takes a stand on freebase cocaine, futures trading relating to the profit made from crude oil, a certain Mexican literary movement and sweaty builders <deleted>.

"Thailand cracks down on crack, crack, crack and crack"

That kinda cracked me up ...

10/10 on the joke cheeseometer there JT mate!

[zxray]

Any nerd worth his salt, knows how to use a proxy server, to bypass any of Thailands internet blocks.!

[lungmi]

TV forum users can protect themselves. Irony, sarcasm is beyond of computer checking, you need intelligent humans to detect the tendency (in Thailand?).

Heinrich Heine (centuries ago) gave an example: (English adaptation)

German censors .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

do a good job.

For modern times I apply:

Yingluck is full of leadership, of morality and ethics, and she is beautiful. I admire her, all my life my Idol was Barbie Doll and now I forget her.

[gerry1011]

Many of you guys always come back with your desire to have crack downs on corruption, crack downs on dishonest politicians, crack downs on patronage, crack downs on dangerous driving, crack downs on discrimination towards farangs, crack downs on tourist scams, crack downs on police traps, crack downs on fake taxis, crack down on tax evasion, and this, and that, and more crack downs, and even more... till the Thai society becomes a replica of the western society and the great, and very well ruled, world that you left (or want to leave).

Then I don't understand why there is a negative feeling towards cracking down on the illegal Internet content. You all should be happy

Or is this a crack down that does not suit your "needs" ?

[djvolak]

Is that photo a likeness of the average TV poster one wonders...

cant figure out if thats one funny looking gentleman or a woman with a "tash"....either way that "person" says raving axe murdering serial killer to me...

And he is in Mom's basement too!

[techboy]

...........and in related news, several current and ex senior MP's one of whom has a 'C' in his name and the other a 'T' have started a new business called the Thai VPN Company. When journalists asked the PM if there was any connection, after spitting out the 2 grains of bio-safe rice (a new brand proposed for 'beleaguered' Umbrella) she was pretending to consume, she simply replied'It's just a coincidence stop generalizing everything'. The Thai Monopolies Commission have been asked to investigate the Thai VPN Company and said it could take some time as there is only one Thai Monopolies Commission.

Is there supposed to be something particularly noteworthy about this response? Wry humour perhaps? Sorry but in the context of this forum it is merely a generic example of the level of veraciousness and confirmability-

Edited July 19, 2013 by techboy