Surveillance plan reeks of sinister intent: Thai editorial

[Siripon]

I wonder if anyone in the government has read 1984.

[PoodMaiDai]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

You will be happy to know their computer crime division is staffed with a lot of foreigners.

[PoodMaiDai]

I wonder if anyone in the government has read 1984.

Unless their version of 1984 was a very thin picture book about Thailand, and sold in Thailand, then the answer to your question is no.

[Thai at Heart]

I wonder if anyone in the government has read 1984.

You mean 2527? They think they are still 200 odd years away from being that bad.......

[Thai at Heart]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

You will be happy to know their computer crime division is staffed with a lot of foreigners.

And none of them thought it wise to tell the boss that going public with this, might not be a good idea?

Do these foreigners run the security on the PM office website that got hacked only a month or so ago?

[kurnell]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

That thought lurks at the back of my mind

You are both so far removed from reality you might prompt readers to consider blind prejudice is the issue...

Perhaps we are drunk genius boy?

[kurnell]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

You will be happy to know their computer crime division is staffed with a lot of foreigners.

Yes, I hired a foreigner to handle our IT dept. and he was hardly here

[ppmacready]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

That thought lurks at the back of my mind

Thats why in Big C, they now even have Falang butchers!

[DualSportBiker]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

That thought lurks at the back of my mind

You are both so far removed from reality you might prompt readers to consider blind prejudice is the issue...

Perhaps we are drunk genius boy?

Being drunk would be an excuse for your crass generalisation.

[whybother]

There's lots of scanning software nowadays, so their ability to go after certain keywords is possible...but I don't see them dedicating enough staff to actually be able to do it efficiently.  I also don't see the owners of Line going for it.

Chalerm spent 400 million baht on a cyber "war room" just after getting into office. That should be enough for a few staff.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[h90]

as the article states "many other countries" that are being monitored by authorities, there's one major difference:

Even though, being monitored in western countries, you are still able to speak out (unless you don't want to hurt others, like fly planes into buildings and other nasty things). In Thailand however, you can't fully speak out, on many topics, I'm not sure if one ever could. Just imagine all sorts of satire, political opinions and ridicules, that are just normal for us, would get you in big trouble here. This brings memories of east side of some iron curtain.

that is not true in middle Europe you can't write your own theories about Nazi Germany and what they did or didn't.

You can't be disrespectful to foreign religions

You can't advocate a change of governmental system away from Democracy.

[pxlgirl]

as for hate speech a la nazi, understandable, it is harmful. So is any extremism on the other direction. You can speak out against religion, but that won't make you so popular, as certain religious groups are professional whiners. There are many though who are not scared off by this and they keep advocating science and reason. Why would you mention middle Europe in particular in this regard? I guess you talk about former commie countries?

[Noistar]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

That thought lurks at the back of my mind

You are both so far removed from reality you might prompt readers to consider blind prejudice is the issue...

Time will tell, unless you're a know-it-all

[DualSportBiker]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

That thought lurks at the back of my mind

You are both so far removed from reality you might prompt readers to consider blind prejudice is the issue...

Time will tell, unless you're a know-it-all

We might need to agree terms; is knowing "it" all different from knowing "them" all? And then of course there is knowing of them all - can't discount rumour and hearsay now can we...

Edited August 14, 2013 by DualSportBiker

[Bagwan]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

You'd be surprised at what they "can" do here in terms of monitoring/surveillance. It's not as backwards as you imply.

Like they did when they brought down all of YouTube? Big loss of face when they had to ask for help.

[Bagwan]

There's lots of scanning software nowadays, so their ability to go after certain keywords is possible...but I don't see them dedicating enough staff to actually be able to do it efficiently. I also don't see the owners of Line going for it.

Chalerm spent 400 million baht on a cyber "war room" just after getting into office. That should be enough for a few staff.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Not after he and his acolytes had taken their 'commission'.

[Dap]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

I hope that remark was in jest

[h90]

as for hate speech a la nazi, understandable, it is harmful. So is any extremism on the other direction. You can speak out against religion, but that won't make you so popular, as certain religious groups are professional whiners. There are many though who are not scared off by this and they keep advocating science and reason. Why would you mention middle Europe in particular in this regard? I guess you talk about former commie countries?

I don't want to start here a discussion about Europe, even it would be interesting...and the moderators would kill it anyway.

Of course as you say, it is mostly understandable. But these laws aren't exact and let a lot space for the court and some court decisions are really strange, specially on the religious things.

And the forums (mostly newspapers webpages are monitored).

In both Austria and Germany, both not really commie countries.

These few cases aren't that disturbing, but the complete system is in place. If there would be a bigger economical crises the government could easily jail leaders of big demonstrations for "hate speech".

[kurnell]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

I hope that remark was in jest

Give me some examples that prove otherwise

[Thai at Heart]

as for hate speech a la nazi, understandable, it is harmful. So is any extremism on the other direction. You can speak out against religion, but that won't make you so popular, as certain religious groups are professional whiners. There are many though who are not scared off by this and they keep advocating science and reason. Why would you mention middle Europe in particular in this regard? I guess you talk about former commie countries?

I don't want to start here a discussion about Europe, even it would be interesting...and the moderators would kill it anyway.

Of course as you say, it is mostly understandable. But these laws aren't exact and let a lot space for the court and some court decisions are really strange, specially on the religious things.

And the forums (mostly newspapers webpages are monitored).

In both Austria and Germany, both not really commie countries.

These few cases aren't that disturbing, but the complete system is in place. If there would be a bigger economical crises the government could easily jail leaders of big demonstrations for "hate speech".

Eventually, a bigger pooyai will tell this dimwit to wind his neck in. What is worrying is that he can shoot his mouth of and even YS quivers around in a circle and says case by case consideration.

There is no single inviolable principle in this country. Everything is decided on the hoof.

Steal 500 baht in one place get 10 years in jail, kill a copper at 200kmh and pay your way out of it. No principles, no ethos, no meaning.

All pap.

[Dap]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

I hope that remark was in jest

Give me some examples that prove otherwise

The incidents of Lese M convictions from the monitoring of some Thai forum sites and facebook posts, not to mention the closures of thousands of so called anti-monarchy sites in the past few years. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention the loss of a few of my favorite porn sites Somebody seems to be "out there" burning the midnight oil "monitoring" the internet goings-on across the realm. IMO of course.

[kurnell]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

I hope that remark was in jest

Give me some examples that prove otherwise

The incidents of Lese M convictions from the monitoring of some Thai forum sites and facebook posts, not to mention the closures of thousands of so called anti-monarchy sites in the past few years. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention the loss of a few of my favorite porn sites Somebody seems to be "out there" burning the midnight oil "monitoring" the internet goings-on across the realm. IMO of course.

Small stuff.

[Thai at Heart]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

I hope that remark was in jest

Give me some examples that prove otherwise

The incidents of Lese M convictions from the monitoring of some Thai forum sites and facebook posts, not to mention the closures of thousands of so called anti-monarchy sites in the past few years. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention the loss of a few of my favorite porn sites Somebody seems to be "out there" burning the midnight oil "monitoring" the internet goings-on across the realm. IMO of course.

Small stuff.

15 years in jail is small stuff? I hope your post was in jest.

I don't like the vision that this us building in Thailand one bit....

[Dap]

I hope that remark was in jest

Give me some examples that prove otherwise

The incidents of Lese M convictions from the monitoring of some Thai forum sites and facebook posts, not to mention the closures of thousands of so called anti-monarchy sites in the past few years. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention the loss of a few of my favorite porn sites Somebody seems to be "out there" burning the midnight oil "monitoring" the internet goings-on across the realm. IMO of course.

Small stuff.

Well ... not the porn but the rest, you may be right. I really don't know their full capabilities.

Although, they do seem to be learning fast. Not like there isn't a large population of computer

savy folk out there willing to "teach" and slap together the necessary tech for that ever handy

bag o' silver coins. I perceive that as a tangible reality. Money does run this show and those that

have it will pay to keep it everywhere on this orb. Nothing diff about SE Asia in that respect.

[razer]

There is nobody clever enough in this country to monitor a website.

You'd be surprised at what they "can" do here in terms of monitoring/surveillance. It's not as backwards as you imply.

That is confirmed by Thai nationals being jailed for posting content on line in contradiction to the Computer Crimes Act and other laws, as well as TV's own forum rules

Just a little critical thinking makes me think a very powerful, world famous, top secret, surveillance agency has given the Thai government the technology and know-how in exchange for open access.

[indyuk]

" The Great Leap Backwards " but will their be a public outcry ? This is national security, say otherwise and the government will sue

The story is not true. The Thai government have not issued ant such statement. In fact I believe that the PTP have stated that the government are against monitoring social network chat lines in Thailand.

[Noistar]

" The Great Leap Backwards " but will their be a public outcry ? This is national security, say otherwise and the government will sue

The story is not true. The Thai government have not issued ant such statement. In fact I believe that the PTP have stated that the government are against monitoring social network chat lines in Thailand.

PTP - the party of truth?