Self-sensorship

[ASIC]

Imagine this:

You just went to download a Linux distribution from http://freshmeat.net/projects/natld/ The file turns out to be hosted on a website that - to the best of your knowledge - hosts personal homepages for free. (follow the link above to see which one).

To your surprise you get the message - "You are not authorized to view this page". So, you send a letter to your ISP that something is wrong. you never get a reply, but you discover the page is blocked by the authorities. Even a search for the website in google or yahoo is blocked. You ask your friend overseas to check for you, but she recline, because she's afraid she'll get in trouble. Now she even shun you and log out from MSN messenger whenever she sees you online.

Are we talking about a dictatorial Singapore? No! We are taking about LOS. The free country. A democratic bastion in Asia. Rule by fear is coming. Self-sensor or leave the country. You have to make the decision soon, because experience shows that self-sensorship eventually makes you sick in your head.

So, could the men in brown come knocking at your door at night? Maybe? Did you do something to upset the social order? No? Sure? Really sure? No nud_e pics in your e-mail inbox? in your outbox? Not even by mistake? Maybe it's time to clean up your harddisk? Are you sure you got it all deleted? All caches cleared? All traces removed? Did you scan all files and websites that you visited lately for words like "<deleted>" ot "Toxin" (They both appear in this forum occasionally). Did you throw out all your CDs that you bought from Pantip? Any VCDs left? Any DVDs? Maybe it's better to throw the computer out completely? Maybe go back to DOS again? Maybe you are under surveilance already? Did you show any "unusual" download patterns lately? Maybe you are a suspect already? Maybe you are paranoid? Maybe the website in question is really a porn-site? But how do you know? The site is blocked and your friends overseas are scared as ###### to check it for you! How can you download your linux distribution and get your work done? Maybe Linux is against the new social order? Maybe it's better to give up your IT career and become a low-paying farmer? Maybe the ISP is using caller-ID to track where you are calling from (they DO, it's a fact). Maybe they are checking who wrote this? Maybe the internet revolution in LOS is dead even before it reached speeds beyond 56k? Maybe you just settled in in LOS after a sensorship nightmare in Singapore? Maybe you have to move country yet again? Maybe you are toast?

Anyone knows if there is a list of banned web-sites, who banned them, and the reason why they were banned?

ASIC

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Send a PM to George. He probably has a list.

[francois]

I just went to visit the page you talk about ... what's wrong with it?

if a censorship is on, can be only on thai sites, hosted in here ...

are we watched? , sure! since the web exists .. protect yourself

francois

ps; if a list exists, why not open it here?

[george]

11,510 blocked sites - February 23, 2004

From: http://www.2bangkok.com (scroll down about half page down)

A reader sent in a list of several hundred sites blocked by Thai ISPs. Most of these urls lead to a page entitled "Police Aleart." Perhaps a third of the sites in the list are those that keep changing their domain names to keep ahead of the block, so actually there are fewer sites blocked than the numbers alone indicate. Besides the normal list of porn sites and trading points for pirated movies and software, there are a few other types of sites represented.

One is for a long-standing resistance group in the deep south. Another is the website of Ladbrokes, an international gambling portal. Ladbrokes would probably be surprised to hear that their site is "closed by Royal Thai Police" (actually it is blocked). Ladbrokes does push it by emphasizing they offer "tax free online betting." That is just the kind of claim that would attract the attention of authorities.

According to the official police website there are 11,510 blocked sites in total. This shows that authorities are not attempting a comprehensive blocking regime at this time--just a piecemeal blocking of sites brought to their attention. On this Thai-language police page is an breakdown of the types of blocked sites. Here is approximately what it says in English:

Type of website # of sites % ot total

Obscene or immoral websites (Thai language) 4,258 36.99%

Obscene or immoral websites (foreign language) 1,822 15.83%

Websites with obscene photos of children 787 6.84%

Websites that sell obscene items for immoral conduct (Thai language) 1,560 13.55%

Websites that sell obscene items for immoral conduct (foreign language) 154 1.34%

Websites that illegally trade copyrighted intellectual property 538 4.67%

Websites that sell other types of illegal items 954 8.29%

Websites that offer sex for sale 377 3.28%

Gambling (Thai language) 187 1.62%

Gambling (Foreign language) 61 0.53%

Websites that might endanger national security 812 7.05%

Total 11,510 100%

--From http://2bangkok.com

[ASIC]

But what is wrong with a.n.g.e.l.f.i.r.e.d.o.t.c.o.m.? I don't see anything wrong there. I simply want to download a Linux distribution. Is there any way to get a ban lifted?

Anyway, who is responsible for banning websites? Can the police just ban stuff without any proper investigations into whether it breaches Thai law or not? Wouldn't you need some kind of court-order? It seems a bit arbitrary at the moment.

ASIC

[stumonster]

if you that worried , proxy youself and use encryption...

me I think you are just paranoid....why don t you randomly swap isp's

[ASIC]

I'm probably paranoid.

ASIC

[TizMe]

I live in the land of censorship (middle east). I can access that web page OK though.

[et33.com]

ah...

who cares what is censored

learn to do without it

if you are so unhappy

dig yourself another hole

and go...

but really...

they got the guns, money and control

the ISPs by license

forget it and let me tell you...

every country is now

following USA to monitor internet users everywhere...

if you got nothing to hide

who cares...

they can find my grandmother's nudes for all i care and come knocking...