Freedom of expression: Thai Police seek to check LINE posts

[EyesWideOpen]

Censorship and controlling media are the hallmarks of repressive governments.

Certainly true for anybody who has studied history. At this point in time, this feels like a last ditch desperation move by the Yingluck government to stop criticism of themselves, at a time when the are clearly falling apart. I believe these moves are being made to attempt to keep Yingluck in office for just long enough to pardon Thaksin. No time for a Thai spring, get Thaksin back !!!!!!

[jayboy]

Who would have imagined the individual responsible for much of the mass communcitian system utilized in Thailand today, the same man who used a sign board with an X to denote refusal to answer a reporters inquiry, has been responsible for numerous innocents demise, responsible for numerious social upheavels/riots, brought the cronies/family into the positions of power of several governments since he absconded, and has enriched himself several times over at the expense of the Thai populist, would have a hand in this latest declaration?

Only those not suitable to brain washing nor those blind due to personal greed. Just hope there is strength in numbers and the number stand up to be counted..

Er, who exactly was it that established Thailand's cyber scouts to spy on online communications?

Clue:It wasn't Thaksin or anybody connected with him.

[robertson468]

If Line agree to this request, I can see a massive migration from this App. Presumably AIS and other mobile phone service providers are already under the Police Microscope? Still, as others have observed, this does not only happen in Thailand, but it kind of hits you in the face when the Police say they will be monitoring a system you might use frequently!

[TackyToo]

After yesterday's comments from this guy I think he already have a final solution for clicking the "wrong" button

[jcisco]

Oh dear of dear.

It gets worse minute by minute. So a copper interprets a law a certain way. Is there not anyone who can tell him he is intruding on peoples rights?

Well generally the a police officer should not be making interpretation of the law, however as I have seen elsewhere a legal opinion from the police legal advisory group would be referred to. Unless it exists in a statute, case law or a legal opinion has been generated I would be gravely concerned of statements like this.

To me this is perhaps as inflammatory but not as completely insane as US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his views on Habeas Corpus . Now he claimed there was no grant in the US constitution granting it, as it was only mentioned in the negative. As in you cannot take it away from anyone.

This opinion was used to support the detention of US war on terror and illegal combatants (An invention to label those in order to facilitate mitigation of their rights) without trial, charge or release.

To all anyone in the world covered by conventions of Habeas Corpus or similar should be outraged at such actions. The very law that protects your freedom at the most fundamental level, being dismissed by the top of the Justice system.

Now we have the police going to offshore companies to obtain information then since the investigation is done outside of the Kingdom then the method the means are not covered by law of Thailand. Well in my guessing mind, that sounds about right

since the laws of Thailand do not stretch beyond its borders. However I wonder as to the ability of the court to accept the legitimacy of such tactics as it opens a pandora's box all over the legal landscape, but would be an interesting precedent to be set.

Quite handy I would think, especially since there is no mention that the persons in the crosshairs are in Thailand and probably Thai.

But I would expect that the Japanese are going to tell the visitors to their offices to bugger off and give them nothing. They I am sure utterly offended as being covered by such statements as

When they want anything, they expect to get it, but when we ask them for something, they rarely help us. They have taken a lot from Thailand but refused to cooperate with Thailand. I won't let them go if they make any mistakes," he warned.

Well an off shore company asking the Police for assistance I am too assume that they are a Victim of a Criminal offense most likely an offense in the Kingdom. Otherwise is it not strange the they want they expect to get it statement. Really I do not see any firm overseas getting anything from the Police if they are not somehow obligated to assist. Otherwise the Police doing favors, I do not like the thought of that either.

And can I get some background on the THey have taken a lot from Thailand. Yes LINE's number one country is Thailand or Taiwan I cannot remember, but not sure if TH is the largest economic revenue source . So maybe there is some leverage but in the end I think they will get rejected.

Alternatively line might be screwed into pushing through a HTTPS proxy but that will be easy to spot and I doubt they will drop the coin in order to obtain the capability properly. But you never know.

Oh well I am sure they wish all moved back to whatsapp and no encryption. At least line secure all comms with HTTPS.

sorry for the long post

[EyesWideOpen]

I like this part of the original story..

"Pol Maj Ge Pisit Pao-in, commander of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD), said the agency had asked Line Corporation in Japan to cooperate, but had failed with other operators of social-media websites as they were mostly in the West and did not allow such investigation."

I suspect when they asked Facebook for chat records, Facebook executives probably spewed coffee out their nose before replying with a bleep off....

Edited August 13, 2013 by EyesWideOpen

[nami]

Stupid retarded motherf%#$. What a bad joke!

What you have done for social media companies? Provide them with users to their free services? Not blocking the services DNS? Such generosity!

So because is not done locally is not a privacy violation. Then can we, foreigners, work via internet for a foreign company? Should be fine too, right?

Stop bullshitting us. You can't intercept most of the information because it's travelling in HTTPS connection in almost all of the social networks, that's why you need them to handle the data to you.

It's really scary and sad the way some countries in asia are following the same shit as the US and some western countries are doing. They are even taking the lead now: We don't like your opinion, we charge you with national security, terrorism or any other thing that takes away your rights to a fair trial.

Moreover, it seems all is need is a f%#ing enlightened ba%#$rd to decide what is acceptable or not. Why don't you just fire the judges? They are of no use

The time has come to start doing everything on internet with encryption and anonymous networks. Next they will do is declare cryptography illegal: we cannot decrypt it so we cannot accept it (pretty what ol'good US already did with PGP and its creator).

Even crazier is the time choosen to make such statements. The whole world is still shocked about Snow den revelations, even Obama said they will be more transparent blah blah, yet those enlightened ones choose the current time.

Do a favour to yourself and the world, commit suicide! The least you could do is to resign after such statements that could easily been done by the gestapo, north Korea or similar ones. Of course, as usual, nobody will complain and they will go ahead. This deserves a big demonstration in front of the parliament.

[metisdead]

A post with messed up quotes has been removed.

[transam]

Stupid retarded motherf%#$. What a bad joke!

What you have done for social media companies? Provide them with users to their free services? Not blocking the services DNS? Such generosity!

So because is not done locally is not a privacy violation. Then can we, foreigners, work via internet for a foreign company? Should be fine too, right?

Stop bullshitting us. You can't intercept most of the information because it's travelling in HTTPS connection in almost all of the social networks, that's why you need them to handle the data to you.

It's really scary and sad the way some countries in asia are following the same shit as the US and some western countries are doing. They are even taking the lead now: We don't like your opinion, we charge you with national security, terrorism or any other thing that takes away your rights to a fair trial.

Moreover, it seems all is need is a f%#ing enlightened ba%#$rd to decide what is acceptable or not. Why don't you just fire the judges? They are of no use

The time has come to start doing everything on internet with encryption and anonymous networks. Next they will do is declare cryptography illegal: we cannot decrypt it so we cannot accept it (pretty what ol'good US already did with PGP and its creator).

Even crazier is the time choosen to make such statements. The whole world is still shocked about Snow den revelations, even Obama said they will be more transparent blah blah, yet those enlightened ones choose the current time.

Do a favour to yourself and the world, commit suicide! The least you could do is to resign after such statements that could easily been done by the gestapo, north Korea or similar ones. Of course, as usual, nobody will complain and they will go ahead. This deserves a big demonstration in front of the parliament.

BUT, some folk in hi-so positions want to use their high paid hi-so positions to control the masses don't you think.

[h90]

People like this guy have only been emboldened since Snowden's revelations. If America--that paragon of rights and democracy--can snoop on the private communications of its citizens (and the citizens of other nations!), why not Thailand? Of course, Snowden's news was old news. Just do a search on 'Carnivore and Echelon' and you'll see that this sort of thing was going on long before the advent of Facebook, Twitter, and smartphones.

In Thailand are 3 centers, as shown on their own presentation copied by Snowden.

[webfact]

UPDATE:
We have not received any request from the Thai police : LINE
Asina Pornwasin

LINE Corporation declined to comment on a Thai police's attempt to seek information on the LINE messages of suspicious LINE users in Thailand.

The company whose headquarter is in Japan said it has not yet received any official request from the Thai police.

"Since LINE Corporation has not received any official request from the Thai police, we cannot provide any answers to the questions on this issue at this point," read the official statement from LINE Corporation in answering query from the Nation.

Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD)'s commander Pol Maj Ge Pisit Paoin earlier said the agency had asked Line Corporation in Japan to cooperate and TCSD officials will be sent to Japan to seek information about suspicious Line users in Thailand.

The Nation contacted LINE Corporation, the LINE's service provider, yesterday for feedback and was told that the company would respond today. Although Pisit admitted that his agency had the means to keep track of people’s chat records, it had decided to ask LINE Corporationto be ready to send a report on chat records when asked. His agency has yet to hear of the company’s decision.


-- The Nation 2013-08-13

[h90]

Who would have imagined the individual responsible for much of the mass communcitian system utilized in Thailand today, the same man who used a sign board with an X to denote refusal to answer a reporters inquiry, has been responsible for numerous innocents demise, responsible for numerious social upheavels/riots, brought the cronies/family into the positions of power of several governments since he absconded, and has enriched himself several times over at the expense of the Thai populist, would have a hand in this latest declaration?

Only those not suitable to brain washing nor those blind due to personal greed. Just hope there is strength in numbers and the number stand up to be counted..

Er, who exactly was it that established Thailand's cyber scouts to spy on online communications?

Clue:It wasn't Thaksin or anybody connected with him.

Who was it then? It was before 2006...Chuan?

[webfact]

Panthongtae against Line tapping
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's nephew Panthongthae Shinawatra posted on Facebook: "I'm really against TCSD's decision to introduce measures that will regulate the Line application by citing impacts on national security.

"Police in this age must be friendly to the people. Do not propose ideas that imitate the spokespersons' team of the Democrat Party. It's not good."

Panthongtae went on to say that he does not believe these measures will get government backing, adding that he uses Line to communicate with his father Thaksin and his aunt, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, on a daily basis.

The application, he explained was a neutral medium - like a road, that cannot be faulted for bad drivers or traffic violators. He added that this news reminds him of the time when a deputy spokesperson of the Democrat Party proposed that Facebook be blocked to curb anti-monarchist messages, which led to widespread condemnation.


-- The Nation 2013-08-13

[jcisco]

The time has come to start doing everything on internet with encryption and anonymous networks. Next they will do is declare cryptography illegal: we cannot decrypt it so we cannot accept it (pretty what ol'good US already did with PGP and its creator).

I agree, but impossible to near impractical to do at this point, TPM is a start but your machine in vulnerable in many ways. And no ability to stream data with a Public Key encryption based algorithm since it is too intensive and of course, cant handle a data stream anyways. So you are always just using PK for auth handshake and then

you communicate using a separate algorithm Such a Triple DES. As for the Phil ZImmerman, the FBI closed their investigation on the export of munitions charges.

Furthermore I recall along with the evaporation of the Clipper chip proposals the US relaxed the export restrictions anyway. This was inevitable in the end since it was protected by free speech laws I do believe, I cannot recall exactly. And the war on everyone had got underway and the no deal lists had started to become the way of saying who could not have modern tools.

Finally Zimmerman provided testimony to the senate in 1996, not exactly shutting him up I would say. Putting him on the public record in such a major way hardly a silencing move.

If I got it wrong let me know,but i just think you never heard the end of the case. But good memory to recall a case from 1993.

John

[mikemac]

@ Suradit69, post #42,

Fact is, nearly every Western person complaining on this forum about this latest stunt by the "government" of Thailand comes from a country whose government is doing the same thing, or similar.

Either they are ignorant of the fact, or they will not admit to it because it ruins a good story. The truth does that.

[happysanook]

If he checks my Line, all he'll find is pictures of my cock sent to a bunch of abandoned housewives.

[lee b]

Ive never heard of this Line thingy

[TPI]

"We are not violating anybody's rights, as the checking is being done overseas. So you can't really attack me for this," he said.

This guy is a "Police Major General"...I have a number of questions....who did he pay for ALL of his promotions? When is he going to have the operation to take his head from his anus? Did he marry a member of the PM's family? Please, please when will he retire?

[ABCer]

Only three comments.

In Thailand the Police General openly talks about Big Brother activities. Very honest and transparent. In US you only talk about this when Russia is willing to provide Asylum.

Criminals only needed money to cover their asses. Now they must have more money or stop bragging about their plans.

Anybody planning to make a run for Cambodia, Burma, etc. - stop!. The New Order is here. Long time ago.

BTW. TV Members seem to be the most protesting. The rest of the country is calm. Talk to me about Thai Intelligence!

(the double meaning is intentional)

Edited August 13, 2013 by ABCer

[h90]

@ Suradit69, post #42,

Fact is, nearly every Western person complaining on this forum about this latest stunt by the "government" of Thailand comes from a country whose government is doing the same thing, or similar.

Either they are ignorant of the fact, or they will not admit to it because it ruins a good story. The truth does that.

unbelievable how many people don't know about it in the west. People are just ignorant.

[Greer]

LINE is an application for mobile phones that allows free chat and messages - similar to Skype, and Viber etc.

Yes, I am inclined to say that as the US, UK, Oz, and any other western criminals (sorry) governments, are doing it, there is not a lot of point in complaining about the Thai government joining the fray, so to speak... in any case they will do as they please, so what the point?

[klauskunkel]

""We have been talking to them [the operators of social media] a lot, but they do not want to cooperate. When they want anything, they expect to get it, but when we ask them for something, they rarely help us. They have taken a lot from Thailand but refused to cooperate with Thailand. I won't let them go if they make any mistakes," he warned."

I bet they don't want to cooperate, they can recognise a totalitarian thought police thug when they see one. This man is dangerous and full of BS, no wonder PT chose him to censor people's thinking. The only saving grace is that he does appear to be quite thick judging by his statements, could just be his cover though. Very good actor if it is.

They have taken a lot from Thailand????

I know we can't buy land, but what a ridiculous xenophobic comment....

He is disgruntled because they forgot to give him his brown envelope...

[mikemac]

If he checks my Line, all he'll find is pictures of my cock sent to a bunch of abandoned housewives.

If I ever ask you for your Line account contact details, please don't give them to me !

[spectre324]

Oh dear of dear.

It gets worse minute by minute. So a copper interprets a law a certain way. Is there not anyone who can tell him he is intruding on peoples rights?

In the simplest of words, "NO!"

[wolf5370]

If he checks my Line, all he'll find is pictures of my cock sent to a bunch of abandoned housewives.

Chicken fanciers?

[watcharacters]

Is that you Mr. Orwell?

[jcisco]

If he checks my Line, all he'll find is pictures of my cock sent to a bunch of abandoned housewives.

i think seeing your pictures made me abandon her!

[CUNJU]

If I wasn't so heavily invested in this country" I would be off to cambodia or Korea! Such a sad day that Thialand is turning into Germany of the late 30's early 40"s.

[Just1Voice]

If he checks my Line, all he'll find is pictures of my cock sent to a bunch of abandoned housewives.

Wow! Must have a really good camera for being able to get clear pictures of small items.

[TackyToo]

"Panthongtae against Line tapping"

What a surprise if your family runs tele-communication companies. If poeple only chat, sms and call when necessary, because of fear waking up Mr. Pisit and his Internet-Stasi, they will lose a lot of money!