Facebook down across Thailand – reports

[MaxLee]

According to the BKK POST Facebook has indeed been blocked...

The Thai govt is not intellegent enough to selectively block face book or anything else. just look at true TV they even blocked the CARTOON channel! maybe they don't want bugs bunny !

What's the point now, to quote my post if everything is fine since around yesterday 5.00 pm onwards...?

[cheshiremusicman]

There will be gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair throughout the land.

The psychiatrist's will have a field day if this continues.

[draftvader]

I'm amazed. This was published on here last night and still people keep on talking about the military having a hand in it. So I'll put it up again.

facebook.png

I have made a screenshot because by 17:00 today (29th) this problem will not show as their graph is 24 hours.

http://downrightnow.com/facebook

Please bear in mind that the reason some people had access and some didn't it the way that Facebook is served to you. During the "outage" I had full access but some images just wouldn't load. That lasted about 10 minutes.

This was NOT military intervention, but it does show the hysteria that we are up against right now.

So the spokesman talking to Reuters was dreaming, or what? No, they went to block it and got cold feet. So now they're going to monitor all social media instead. Or rather, they're going to pull in the operators and tell THEM to monitor their own operations. On pain of.....

Probably financial leverage involved if not direct physical threats.

More likely the spokesman talking to Reuters was significantly out of his depth and the tech people hadn't yet got to the bottom of it. From my experience in Thailand there are people that do have tech talent but it is unlikely to be the first person you speak to. It just takes more time to get the correct answers.

The biggest mistake here was this man not saying "We don't know, we're looking into it" instead he jumped on the aggressive rhetoric. Is this any surprise in a military led environment?

[MaxLee]

You would have millions of teenies protesting on the streets of Thailand, lol...

[Albertosez]

Never used it and can't see the attraction of letting everyone know where you are and what you are doing ? Do folk not enjoy a sense of privacy anymore. There are plenty of alternative ways to keep in tocuh with friends and family without people almsot inviting everyone in to their front room. let's also not forget that ultimately your information is being looked at and read by the almighty big brother and you info sold and traded without you knowing ! Don't be so gullable with your private info keep ya sens to ya sens !

[draftvader]

Now 2 people have come on here with evidence that this was not Thailand based. Let's be straight this all happened in a very short timescale. In normal times this would be an inconvenience and would have passed by with little comment. Due to our present "political" environment there is a lot of paranoia.

In short, from a technical perspective, this was never a country wide block. Had it been then we wouldn't have had the inconsistencies of people on the same providers in a nearby areas having different levels of access. I had a VERY small problem but I use custom DNS on my router. It would seem from another poster that this would explain why I did have access and others didn't.

I still don't think this leadership is stupid enough to cut a communication channel that they are successfully snooping on....makes no sense.

[chainarong]

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Just in - Companies throughout Thailand are now experiencing 95% Inrease in productivity. alt=wai2.gif width=20 height=20>

Mine sites in Indo block btwn 6am and 7pm the only good thing they ever did.

[Tywais]

Off topic posts and replies removed.

[MaxYakov]

According to the BKK POST Facebook has indeed been blocked...

The Thai govt is not intellegent enough to selectively block face book or anything else. just look at true TV they even blocked the CARTOON channel! maybe they don't want bugs bunny !

I don't get it either ...

[drand11]

Oh come on people...don't you all know that the Military is doing this for your own Good!! Information is the enemy! They are here to save you and Thai society!

[draftvader]

Information is their friend. It is simple. The military is not going to cut "opposition" communications channels whilst they successfully able to monitor them and cope with the data. It works against them to drive the information underground. Monitoring communications has never been easier. Telephone eavesdropping requires sophisticated software and a ton of storage. You can guarantee the dissenters in Thailand are not being sophisticated in their online communication. Even if 1 person in a group CAN then the others also have to be able to. How many of you can successfully encrypt your communications online? Not too many.

In short they NEED Facebook and twitter up and running so they can monitor it. They will only cut it if it gets SO out of hand that they can't cope with the data. If we are all honest the bullets would have been flying for some time by that point so I doubt too many of us will care greatly about Facebook just getting to safety.

[draftvader]

Sorry, forgot. The announcement from ICT today just shows that they still haven't worked out what went on. I doubt they are going to get their hands on Facebook's log files so they have to examine everything on the major nodes. This is going to take a lot of time and resources that they can't take away from their spying efforts. To claim that their resources are working hard on finding out why makes them look better than shrugging their shoulders, saying "I don't know" and then carrying on with their intensive network monitoring. This also makes them look important and knowledgeable....and we know how much leaders (all over the world) love that stuff!

[keemapoot]

Sorry, forgot. The announcement from ICT today just shows that they still haven't worked out what went on. I doubt they are going to get their hands on Facebook's log files so they have to examine everything on the major nodes. This is going to take a lot of time and resources that they can't take away from their spying efforts. To claim that their resources are working hard on finding out why makes them look better than shrugging their shoulders, saying "I don't know" and then carrying on with their intensive network monitoring. This also makes them look important and knowledgeable....and we know how much leaders (all over the world) love that stuff!

Reuters reported that the ICT did it at the request of the military then reversed it about 30 minutes later. Not sure where they got their info.

[mania]

Sorry, forgot. The announcement from ICT today just shows that they still haven't worked out what went on. I doubt they are going to get their hands on Facebook's log files so they have to examine everything on the major nodes. This is going to take a lot of time and resources that they can't take away from their spying efforts. To claim that their resources are working hard on finding out why makes them look better than shrugging their shoulders, saying "I don't know" and then carrying on with their intensive network monitoring. This also makes them look important and knowledgeable....and we know how much leaders (all over the world) love that stuff!

Reuters reported that the ICT did it at the request of the military then reversed it about 30 minutes later. Not sure where they got their info.

As their report stated ...from a "senior" ICT Ministry official.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/28/uk-thailand-politics-facebook-idUKKBN0E80U120140528

A senior ICT ministry official confirmed the site had been blocked to thwart the spread of online criticism of the military in the wake of a May 22 coup.

"We have blocked Facebook temporarily and tomorrow we will call a meeting with other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, to ask for cooperation from them," Surachai Srisaracam, permanent secretary of the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, told Reuters.

[T_Dog]

I wonder if that official is in trouble for saying too much too soon!

[zaphod reborn]

Facts are facts.

Facebook was blocked temporarily in Thailand. It could easily be accessed using a proxy. It probably was a warning shot aimed at facebook, which was asked to remove some offending accounts. It proves ICT has the ability to block facebook from being accessed through Thailand-based ISP's and that action will be taken against people who are posting content deemed to be in violation of the various orders which have been issued.

[KonaRain]

I got Herb Alpert on f.b.. I'm uneducated though.

Someone mentioned PGP yesterday..

Startpage and duck, duck, agogo have email privacy

Startpage being a new email service and very secure.

keep comments about LOS positive, 'cause it is..

Got to believe..Aloha

[draftvader]

Sorry, forgot. The announcement from ICT today just shows that they still haven't worked out what went on. I doubt they are going to get their hands on Facebook's log files so they have to examine everything on the major nodes. This is going to take a lot of time and resources that they can't take away from their spying efforts. To claim that their resources are working hard on finding out why makes them look better than shrugging their shoulders, saying "I don't know" and then carrying on with their intensive network monitoring. This also makes them look important and knowledgeable....and we know how much leaders (all over the world) love that stuff!

Reuters reported that the ICT did it at the request of the military then reversed it about 30 minutes later. Not sure where they got their info.

As their report stated ...from a "senior" ICT Ministry official.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/28/uk-thailand-politics-facebook-idUKKBN0E80U120140528

A senior ICT ministry official confirmed the site had been blocked to thwart the spread of online criticism of the military in the wake of a May 22 coup.

"We have blocked Facebook temporarily and tomorrow we will call a meeting with other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, to ask for cooperation from them," Surachai Srisaracam, permanent secretary of the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, told Reuters.

I saw that during the "outage". It looked like a hastily written item to get ahead of the curve. I have no doubt that the ministry official spoke out of turn and out of depth. It isn't the first time that has happened to a "government" official nor will it be the last.

I still stand by my words that at the moment the "comment" was made these people had no idea what was happening. The simple facts are that Facebook suffered a general outage on some of its services and, such is the content distribution network model, we all saw different levels of service for a short while. The "downforme" sites check from numerous locations globally and average their results, hence the not entirely out curve in the graph.

[mania]

I have no doubt that the ministry official spoke out of turn and out of depth.

The simple facts are that Facebook suffered a general outage on some of its services.....

That is your choice & opinion. Out of depth of High Level?

One thing a news site like Reuters does is verify its sources

unlike some It seems you accept half of his statement though since the meeting

to censor he spoke of has been repeated by both you & them

As for your "simple fact" please back it with perhaps more than "your" words

otherwise it is an opinion not a fact.

If Facebook suffers a country wide outage it releases info such as this

from 2010

https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/more-details-on-todays-outage/431441338919

I have no horse in this race as it is not my country of citizenship.

They may do what ever they want. I am a guest here & decide only to stay or not.

Edited May 29, 2014 by mania

[Beetlejuice]

No problems for me with accessing my FB page or any other FB pages up here in Chiang Mai, both all of yesterday and today.

[Prbkk]

Now 2 people have come on here with evidence that this was not Thailand based. Let's be straight this all happened in a very short timescale. In normal times this would be an inconvenience and would have passed by with little comment. Due to our present "political" environment there is a lot of paranoia.

In short, from a technical perspective, this was never a country wide block. Had it been then we wouldn't have had the inconsistencies of people on the same providers in a nearby areas having different levels of access. I had a VERY small problem but I use custom DNS on my router. It would seem from another poster that this would explain why I did have access and others didn't.

I still don't think this leadership is stupid enough to cut a communication channel that they are successfully snooping on....makes no sense.

Indeed, maybe they are not responsible for the cut in service. However, the cynicism of the foreign press is probably justified given that the public servant responsible for these matters announced that it was a decision of the junta ( later retracted or qualified).

[rubl]

Now 2 people have come on here with evidence that this was not Thailand based. Let's be straight this all happened in a very short timescale. In normal times this would be an inconvenience and would have passed by with little comment. Due to our present "political" environment there is a lot of paranoia.

In short, from a technical perspective, this was never a country wide block. Had it been then we wouldn't have had the inconsistencies of people on the same providers in a nearby areas having different levels of access. I had a VERY small problem but I use custom DNS on my router. It would seem from another poster that this would explain why I did have access and others didn't.

I still don't think this leadership is stupid enough to cut a communication channel that they are successfully snooping on....makes no sense.

Indeed, maybe they are not responsible for the cut in service. However, the cynicism of the foreign press is probably justified given that the public servant responsible for these matters announced that it was a decision of the junta ( later retracted or qualified).

What is strange though is that the CAPO already had intensified the watch over social media like facebook to try to limit the anti-government messages. K. Chalerm got 400 million Baht in 2011 to setup a "internet watch dog" in a new building. Seems they are still clumsy enough to stumble over cables or so.

[RichardtenBrinke]

Samui no problem. Can load FB normally. Also Curfew is not here i think. All is open till late....

[HOAX]

FB is working here in Udon Thani (CAT telecom).

But they have blocked Soccerway.com for some strange reason, same with some other sites that doesn`t have anything to do with politics.

Yesterday when visited Soccerway, the NCPO logo came up. Today you get redirected to w3.mict.go.th/ .

[TheSpade]

People kept saying this in the pub last night but my FB worked just fine whenever I checked it (NOTE: I was checking to see if it was true not because I sit in the pub and check Facebook).

[sumtingwong]

Twitter #facebookdown check

https://twitter.com/hashtag/facebookdown

[Evolare]

Worked fine for me without interruption in BKK

[MaxYakov]

FB is working here in Udon Thani (CAT telecom).

But they have blocked Soccerway.com for some strange reason, same with some other sites that doesn`t have anything to do with politics.

Yesterday when visited Soccerway, the NCPO logo came up. Today you get redirected to w3.mict.go.th/ .

Yep. Any volunteers to "head over" to the MICT? Or maybe a call might be better advised.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

the site you wish to visit has been blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology

.

Further information is available at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

No. 120 Moo 3, 6th Floor, Government Center, Chaengwattana 80, Laksi, Bangkok 10210 Thailand.

calls. 02-141-6950

[DrTuner]

But they have blocked Soccerway.com for some strange reason, same with some other sites that doesn`t have anything to do with politics.

Yesterday when visited Soccerway, the NCPO logo came up. Today you get redirected to w3.mict.go.th/ .

Did that website have an open forum ?

[Thaddeus]

Nope, no open form on Soccerway, it's just a really good website.

I can still access it.

Edited May 30, 2014 by Thaddeus