MaxLee Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Junta Readies ‘Great Firewall of Thailand’ By Khaosod English Map of malicious internet traffic. Image: NorseCorp.com By Teeranai Charuvastra BANGKOK — Thai authorities have taken steps toward achieving their stated desire of gaining greater control of internet use by creating a single gateway for all internet traffic in and out of the kingdom. The military government’s intention to police internet content by channeling it all through a single point of control has taken practical steps toward becoming a reality in recent weeks, with officials being instructed to “speed up” the process of implementation of a system which alarm advocates of a free and competitive internet. Although the idea was first floated almost immediately after the ruling junta came into power, it only went into writing last month. On 4 Aug. the military government approved the plan, and on 27 Aug. issued an order to the ministry tasked with regulating the internet to make it happen, according to cabinet meeting records. “The Ministry of Information Communication Technology is hereby instructed to speed up the aforementioned issue and report any progress to the prime minister by September 2015,” read the 27 Aug. cabinet minutes of the gateway project. Col. Setthapong Malisuwan, deputy chairman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, told BBC Thai that he prefers to call “single gateway” a “hub” to avoid any negative connotation. He defended the plan, saying the “single hub” would allow Thai security forces to monitor internet traffic more easily. Col. Setthapong also insisted that the idea would promote, not hamper, Thailand’s digital economy,and claimed that other modern countries have similar surveillance measures. "Singapore, United Kingdom and United States, many countries already have this kind of law. Cybersecurity laws,” the colonel said in an interview with BBC Thai. “We are very late comers." Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of internet freedom advocacy group Thai Netizen Network, told Khaosod English that the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology recently gave two options to ISP representatives in the meeting: Either direct all signals through a central gateway operated by the ministry or consent to having tracking devices installed in their ISPs. Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1443090849&typecate=06§ion= -- Khaosod English 2015-09-24 Saying this is a new idea is just spin. The Bangkok Post had an article on 4 June 2008 entitled "Net Slowdowns suggest government monitoring internet." The firewall has been in the works for a long time. Well let's pray, that it is just scaring tactics as you indirectly mentioned.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaidream Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 This whole subject just makes my blood boil. I have been a big critic of the US governments intrusion into the rights of citizens, residents and visitors. American passports have a chip impeded that can be used to track people; The CIA/NSA has the ability to turn on a person's cell phone and find out where they are and see what is in the room with them; and key words spoken on the phone trigger alerts at the NSA which then monitors the phone call and it is recorded. Does Thailand really want to follow this model of intrusion? Why are governments so afraid of what people are saying? One thing the US has that is priceless is the American Constitution which in part states that a person has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the model all Nations should be using, including Thailand and the US needs to start following . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Usernames Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 This whole subject just makes my blood boil. I have been a big critic of the US governments intrusion into the rights of citizens, residents and visitors. American passports have a chip impeded that can be used to track people; The CIA/NSA has the ability to turn on a person's cell phone and find out where they are and see what is in the room with them; and key words spoken on the phone trigger alerts at the NSA which then monitors the phone call and it is recorded. Does Thailand really want to follow this model of intrusion? Why are governments so afraid of what people are saying? One thing the US has that is priceless is the American Constitution which in part states that a person has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the model all Nations should be using, including Thailand and the US needs to start following . Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are part of the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. Guaranteeing the third one constitutionally would be a bit of a chore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieH Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 If, as he says the UK, USA and Singapore use this system why is everyone complaining? because it isn't true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadee1947 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 If, as he says the UK, USA and Singapore use this system why is everyone complaining? because it isn't true. really??????? I doubt it. Think of NSA...and try again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadee1947 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 this is a very big mistake, its one thing to want to end the political sh*t fights but quite another to actually control what people can see and read. This will cause more trouble than he can possibly imagine and lose a lot of support for him. It doesn't matter to him if he loses support. He doesn't care. He did not ask anybody's permission when he took over and overthrew the existing government. I suppose he read only one book in his life: I forgot the author, but can remember his first name was "George" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smedly Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 the next stage will be you having to register your passport/id to an account and having to login to use internet in Thailand, this is exactly what they are trying to achieve and trust me it will never work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clockman Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Do not worry, Thailand is good at talking! but thats all. Remember the science minister, Plod? What ever happened to him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadee1947 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Don't worry, the public backlash will be overwhelming. Even if they push ahead with the laws, the next civilian government can always repeal the laws. The previous government already put a firewall there some sites are already blocked, so don't be too sure of that. For the record i am against this kind of thing but just try opening the dailymail and you will see its blocked. So its not a new thing.. It is not the same as blocking sites here and there. They mean to control all content, which means likely it will need to be approved and one gateway means speeds reduced significantly. It's the absolute end of any pretense to democracy here. http://prachatai.com/english/node/5485 Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network (TNN), an Internet freedom advocacy group, told Prachatai that the idea to reduce the internet gateways to a single one was proposed only a few days after the 2014 coup d’état by the ex-MICT permanent secretary. He mentioned that the idea was formulated under the logic that Thai people in present use social media inappropriately without control. The TNN coordinator added that the MICT then even proposed the idea of creating a special version of Facebook for Thailand and to require people to fill in their ID numbers before using the internet. “We can see that this sort of idea came together with the coup d’état,” said Arthit. I'm not so sure this will happen. If anybody who likes to use internet has to clock in the ID number....what would happen to all the millions of tourists? Well, then it might be good to print a fake ID in Khao San Rd? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawadee1947 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 the next stage will be you having to register your passport/id to an account and having to login to use internet in Thailand, this is exactly what they are trying to achieve and trust me it will never work ...good business in Khao San Rd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaidream Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 You are of course correct about my mislabeling the Declaration quote as the US Constitution. Thank you for correcting me on this. My intent was to show that any people, anywhere; should have the right to pursue those things that make them happy.. I would hope that Thailand spends more time on transition to a civilian government; encouraging intelligent people to run for office; and developing a Bill of Rights and workable Constitution for its citizens; rather than spending time and money on a system that restricts information and free thought. Any government that becomes afraid of its citizens, needs to rethink its objectives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connda Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 China, North Korea, Thailand VPN on port 443, well, unless they plan on shutting down international commerce completely. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKnave Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Have been a supporter of the coup and the Prime Minister but this is way over the top and beyond logic. I do not support this type of monitoring whether it is in the US, UK or Thailand. This would be a vast intrusion into a person's private life and no government-anywhere- has that right and no amount of rhetoric can justify it. What's next- tracking devices inserted into a citizen's body. Thanks for clarifying your position for us. As if... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connda Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Only a country who have so much to hide would think of doing this. Example China, Iran, North Korean and Thailand. You forgot the UK morality police - IT Division. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judgedredd Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Currently, the Thais block many websites, but I've been able to get around all of that by two easy methods - - 1.) I've bought subscriptions to VPN services 2.) Or, I sometimes use the TOR/Onion browser, which is free. https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en I already have two browsers which I use (IE, and Mozilla) so adding a third was no big deal. Using a TOR/Onion browser is no slower than using a VPN, and it's free. Some of the higher-end censorship gateway servers detect TOR, but all you have to do is configure TOR for that, see the attached screen snap for which boxes to check. Adding even more censorship will be bad for business. A single gateway "censorship-server" will slow down Internet traffic, (even more) and make it almost impossible for some technologies to work, like streaming videos, and VoIP, and etc. It's difficult enough now to make every kind of Streaming Video, and VoIP, and Skype, etc., work well in Thailand. Imagine what it will be like when every thing in Thailand goes thru one single choke-point gateway censorship server? There will be skips, lags, and slow downs for all video and voice communications. Imagine getting in line at the ATM (with a foreign bank card) and the process times-out because the local ATM can't connect quickly enough with Barclay's offshore server? Foreign ATM/Debit cards may not work uniformly work, etc. How is any of this good for tourism and business? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Flint Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 With the risk of repeating myself, khun army man is a fruit bat, a power freak, and a dictatorial communist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Flint Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Next will be listening in to line, voip, skype etc etc, big brother will be watching you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaimat Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 I'll add that the social and economic costs of a single-point internet are very high. A free flow of information facilitates a free flow of money, and obviously academics, educators, and researchers suffer from internet censorship.They just don't understand here how the Internet is good for business, and free flowing, fast internet makes everyone money. They also don't seem to see that fast, accessible Internet is crucial to increasing tourism. Old guys stuck in the 60's, business-wise. Either that, or they don't want upscale tourists, prefer busloads of Uzbeks and other low-tech extremely low budget tourists. It's true that free wi-fi access is much harder to come by in Thailand than, for ex., Cambodia, which is as we all know much poorer than Thailand. 99% of "free wi-fi" in Thailand requires registering and/or paying for that service. This is one of the reasons I find Thais to be unusually stingy. Two other places without good free wi-fi: Hong Kong and Japan; needless to say it's not about a country/place being able to afford giving away wi-fi, but whether TPTB in that place know that it takes money (investment) to make money, or would rather make pennies now and lose dollars later. free wifi is moot where a country has decent 3/4g and reasonable data plans, which thailand does. i rarely avail myself of free wifi, why would i? my phone is generally faster. Might be moot for your needs, but if trying to download anything of size, or watching Internet TV in HD, the dif between 3G and good wifi is quite huge. Plus, with wifi, you have no limits on how much you view or download, whereas on 3G you are limited by the amount you pay for in your plan. For tourists, wifi is the much better solution, no hassles about roaming charges, compatibility, etc, but perhaps more importantly, much faster speeds/bigger bandwidth. Additionally, most laptops can't use 3G, need wifi access. Look at any coffee house that offers free wifi, see how many laptops are open, how many phones in use. Compare that to a coffee house that has no wifi, and you'll see which people prefer. Are you an employee of The Thai govt? Because your statement certainly mirrors their view of wifi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 this is a very big mistake, its one thing to want to end the political sh*t fights but quite another to actually control what people can see and read. This will cause more trouble than he can possibly imagine and lose a lot of support for him. It doesn't matter to him if he loses support. He doesn't care. He did not ask anybody's permission when he took over and overthrew the existing government. Please try to get your story correct. There WAS NO existing government as Yingluck had dissolved parliament in December 2013 some 6 months earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuketrichard Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 point of fact, do not use ur home isp go to starbucks or anywhere that offers free wifi start up tor u can go and see anything an ur for the most part, untrackable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 (edited) One other thought....you reach a banned website...it is stored in a "cache" on your computer. You forget to clear the cache... I can see where a political suspect could have his laptop/phone confiscated, and then the cache for your browser (and prefetch) would still hold information from a banned website (that you viewed and did not clear). So I suppose...that would imply illegal use of circumvention methods..mentioned in the rules here on thaivisa. Forbidden to discuss illegal use of circumvention. VPN'S are legal..but could be used for illegal activity (no brainer) Even more interesting...some folks may unwarily click on a link in their email/chat box...which executes a java script...which in turns adds a banned link to your browser cache...without you doing a thing. clean your browsing history and cache..and cookies. . I would clear out the prefetch every so often as well...(but not turn it off). This is not circumvention...this is regular maintenance....but helps prevents accidental pages popping up...when on vpn. I don't need to do this too often...as I use a linux that runs in ram..... If my flash drive is not plugged in...all traces disappear when I turn off the power. Now that is good for banking. I just ran Malwarebytes on my computer a couple days ago. It found over 1,000 problems. All I knew was that it was getting a bit slow. It's much better now. Those pesky hidden scripts seem to be everywhere. I run Malwarebytes every morning and Panda 2016 Anti virus overnight. Malware usually finds none and Panda finds the odd 1 or 2 every so often. Sometimes Firefox and Google flag up a page not found then when I reload the page it is OK. It happens inside Thai Visa too. Edited September 25, 2015 by billd766 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Visa reporting, registering of mobile phones and now monitoring on internet traffic. Talk about xenophobia gone mad. Thai people will wise up sooner or later for sure and no amount of government imposed restrictions can stop that,,, unless of course you abandon democracy all together (yikes). Thailand want all the benefits of International trade and cross boarder relationships but also want to keep their boarders as closed as they dare and now restrict what you can realistically do online here. A recent post said what company is going to be comfortable knowing that the Government has installed a single gateway,, well none of course. Vietnam looks more and more to be the country to watch out for in the Asean, if not then perhaps indonesia,, Thailand is going to fall behind for sure. Very sad, I have grown to like it here but there's only so much dictatorship I will stomach. You forgot to mention that if you have overseas guests stay with you for a couple of days, you have to report that to immigration. Likewise, if you fancy a few days off and go to visit and stay with a friend somewhere in Thailand, he/she is supposed to report that to immigration. Give us the bloody wristbands with GPS chips. At least we will be free of all the paperwork. free of the paperwork just how many photocopies do you think getting your wristband will entail??? 3 trees worth per person per year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vadimbz Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 My money are on corruption, laziness and incompetence of government employees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camble Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wabothai Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 It wil be un-implemented as soon as the real powers take over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balo Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Junta Readies ‘Great Firewall of Thailand’ By Khaosod English Map of malicious internet traffic. Image: NorseCorp.com By Teeranai Charuvastra BANGKOK — Thai authorities have taken steps toward achieving their stated desire of gaining greater control of internet use by creating a single gateway for all internet traffic in and out of the kingdom. The military government’s intention to police internet content by channeling it all through a single point of control has taken practical steps toward becoming a reality in recent weeks, with officials being instructed to “speed up” the process of implementation of a system which alarm advocates of a free and competitive internet. Although the idea was first floated almost immediately after the ruling junta came into power, it only went into writing last month. On 4 Aug. the military government approved the plan, and on 27 Aug. issued an order to the ministry tasked with regulating the internet to make it happen, according to cabinet meeting records. “The Ministry of Information Communication Technology is hereby instructed to speed up the aforementioned issue and report any progress to the prime minister by September 2015,” read the 27 Aug. cabinet minutes of the gateway project. Col. Setthapong Malisuwan, deputy chairman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, told BBC Thai that he prefers to call “single gateway” a “hub” to avoid any negative connotation. He defended the plan, saying the “single hub” would allow Thai security forces to monitor internet traffic more easily. Col. Setthapong also insisted that the idea would promote, not hamper, Thailand’s digital economy,and claimed that other modern countries have similar surveillance measures. "Singapore, United Kingdom and United States, many countries already have this kind of law. Cybersecurity laws,” the colonel said in an interview with BBC Thai. “We are very late comers." Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of internet freedom advocacy group Thai Netizen Network, told Khaosod English that the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology recently gave two options to ISP representatives in the meeting: Either direct all signals through a central gateway operated by the ministry or consent to having tracking devices installed in their ISPs. Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1443090849&typecate=06§ion= -- Khaosod English 2015-09-24 Saying this is a new idea is just spin. The Bangkok Post had an article on 4 June 2008 entitled "Net Slowdowns suggest government monitoring internet." The firewall has been in the works for a long time. Or maybe just a terrible infrastructure that causes lags and slowdowns all the time. Not sure if Thailand were even capable of monitoring phone lines in 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebo Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 http://chinesewall.ccc.de/index-en.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bench499d Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 If, as he says the UK, USA and Singapore use this system why is everyone complaining? because it isn't true. really??????? I doubt it. Think of NSA...and try again... I think I am correct in saying that the UK does NOT have a single Internet gateway, and I am fairly sure the US and Singapore don't either. The reason being that if this one gateway was unavailable the internet in that country would suddenly be domestic sites only and no one internationally would be able to read that country's websites. This would be a disaster for business. In fact it would be a disaster for the internet as a whole because it was designed by ARPA to be bomb-proof with many such gateways so if you take one out the internet just re-routes traffic. When it comes to surveillance, well maybe that is happening at those gateways, who knows, but again, as far as I know, the US and the UK do not censor the sites its citizens can visit beyond obvious things like child porn and this is done by the ISPs not a national "firewall". They certainly don't currently ban encryption and VPNs, and anyone in those governments that suggests if would be quickly shot down as happened in the UK recently. In short, it's not true (or an extremely bad translation). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wabothai Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 The only good thing that can possibly come from this is that it might finally wake up the Thai people to the type of government they now have, and maybe hasten its demise. And how do they do that, to a government that no-one elected and which repeatedly puts back the date for elections. While the rest of Asia moves forward, Thailand continues to go further and further in the opposite direction. I can imagine no elections being held for the foreseeable future, as the junta can claim with some justification that the country is not stable and is still open to rival groups warring with each other. That is not going to change. The Red and Yellow shirts haven't simply disappeared. They are just laying dormant. With one eye open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamiesilver Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 oh dear, this Junta dude really does hate foreigners... you remember when he spat his dummy out because the International press and tabloids were reporting on TRUTHFUL news... but Tainitng Thailands Image...and the Daily mail UK has never been unblocked since it reported on a certain visitor in the UKWill it be hard to implement here? Not if they ask China to do it for them since they are owed a few favors now, that way rather than banning individual sites a flick of a button would just block every IP server that isnt local Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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