Thailand's govt pressures Facebook, Line to censor online posts

[MockingJay]

I don't think either LINE or FACEBOOK will follow the General. Even he is PM at present he is only one of those in Thailand's history. The next govt. could change everything and the following change the changes.

So why to follow a General for 2 or 3 years...?

All this proposed censorship proves one thing for sure. Any election will be in the distant future.

Dreamer! There won't be any elections again in this country for several decades to come. Let's face it - it's over!

Perhaps now we all will be "liberated" by the US so we can join in the reconstruction efforts, singing and dancing, after the country has been bombed back into stone age...

[jonaz]

I'm shocked that such a large amount of people can be suppressed like this.

Why would anyone want to do that to their own people? Money

Why would such a large a huge amount of people stand for it in this day and age?

I've seen that man in the Whitehouse with the president of America.

This isn't for real, surely.

[puffy]

This is why America is the Greatest country on earth. The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. As soon as they get rid of Obama.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=america+used+to+be+the+greatest+country

No other country has freedom, watch that you tube clip.

[CantSpell]

If they only spent half as much time actually working to solve the serious problems the country has, as they do chasing after Facebook, Line, etc. over censorship, then Thailand would very quickly become a worlds better place.

But instead of trying to solve problems and resolve disputes, they're simply trying to crush any mention or discussion of them.

+1

Must be something like:

Step 1 admittance: "omg, we failed"

Step 2 cover-up: "let's block it all so nobody can see we failed"

"No time to fix it since we don't have a clue in the first place.. Make it disappear"

[Fairynuff]

Who do they think they are springs to mind.

[TerminalVelosity]

Facebook and all the other social media sites, including should be outlawed on a global scale

They are an absolute scourge on our society

[4u2mad]

Facebook and Google reply :- Thailand is not my father

[Fairynuff]

This is why America is the Greatest country on earth. The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. As soon as they get rid of Obama.

I assume you're joking. Greatest country on earth.... Land of the free???? And replace Obama with Trump.... Yeah now I realise you'd have to be joking

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

If thais freedoms are banned our freedoms are lost and anything thing that can happen to them will happen to us. We get a sample of limited speech in this forum. Don't you ever get pissed? And for those who don't agree and comply then a little bit of attitude adjustment is dealt out, any thing from a 30 day ban to a lifetime ban. The suppression of democracy affect all of us sooner or later.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere

[riki]

They got YouTube to fall in line

[Shaunduhpostman]

No comment is required, their actions and proclamations speak for themselves. They can ban and censor all they like, but as long as their proclamations and actions are made public...

[facthailand]

Bottom line: The internet is open and free to all to post what they want. Requests to remove or block sites or content by any Government is not an acceptable practice.

A message to Google letting them know you disagree with sites / content being blocked may be an appropriate step. Court order or not, people/companies have the right to post their opinion.

Google Thailand Contact Info

http://www.google.co.th/contact/

I went to this site (in Thai, use translate.google.com, if you need to) but I could not discern anyone to contact at Google or YouTube over policy or to express an opinion.

Will you please look into this and detail precisely how we can let Google know they can't cave in to this nonsense.

TIA!

[JAG]

The government has picked a fight they can't win. Try to stifle free speech in the cyber world we live in, impossible. Win hearts and minds by arresting folks for sharing their thoughts, reprehensible.

Unfortunately, you are wrong! Just look at what goes into and out of N. Korea. Nothing!

There is one important difference. The people in North Korea have never had access to the Internet and social media. That which they don't know about they will not / do not miss.

Here the internet and social media play a large part in the lives of many many people. We may laugh at their apparent adiction to Facebook and Line, but take them away or restrict access and you risk a significant backlash.

[phycokiller]

I'm still confused about how they judge what content they could justifiably consider as harmful to the country. If I post about having to pay off a.policeman bribe or how I got forced to pay three times the fee or cost or if I post about how bad my trip in Thailand was or send a vdo of a chinaman pissing or shitting on the street doesn't that hurt Thailand's tourism, hence, damaging the country?

Or, if I posted a vdo of someone getting kidnapped by the army or of a business using slave Labour or even a girl on walking Street offering sex for money. All would.damage people view of Thailand in the gov viewpoint. So I guess my point is, if the line and fb jump to remove your content posted just because Thailand thinks it damages how they want people to think about them then all freedoms are gone and for anyone and in any country.

basically anything written in Thai criticizing or questioning the monarchy or military, they arent worried about the country as such, just maintaining their privileges through the coming transition

Edited February 1, 2016 by phycokiller

[facthailand]

A world without Farcebook.....I'd like to see that!

Much easier for them to carry on regardless, and arrest all the people here that post on Facebook, I think if international media gets hold of this or bothers to take the story up then more egg on face.

Ha! When has a Thai govt, and the junta in particular, ever cared what foreigners think or is written in the foreign press?!?

[facthailand]

There are limits that should be imposed, and I do believe anyone who is a proponent of totally "free speech" is not thinking clearly. Libel and slander are "free speech" and there should be some mechanism in place to prevent or remove such objectionable publications

Sorry, friend, it's about sticks & stones not words. The politically-correct burn victims are oversensitive. Defamation, libel, and slander may be prosecuted by real laws not by censorship. Those laws apply equally if the accusation is true!

[facthailand]

Wonder why the junta supporters are fewer and fewer on TVF.....

Come on, EJ, djjamie and other stalwarts, spin this one if you can. No wait, I'll do it for you; THAKSIN!

I liked the junta at first.. now I like them a lot less because of stuff like this. I still dislike the PTP too.. so not much choice for me now. If the laws that they are going to make keeps the PTP in line next election (forcing them to play by the rules and no secret votes at 3.00am or amnesties for Thanksin) then this has all been worth it. Otherwise it was all for nothing.

Don't forget who gave them the perfect excuse for street protests and the coup, (no amnesty for Thaksin and all of a sudden there was, just as bad as that stupid internet gateway the government is pushing for now U turns seem to be the norm here)

There is not one party to blame here, they all are. Anyway disliking more and more plans of the junta.

G'day robblok, Good to see that your opinions are changing and seeing the junta for what there are (in part), I say in part because you have a real problem with the amnesty for Thaksin, ok cool fair enough your opinion, no worries, now legit question, has the PM granted himself and others amnesty for past present and future??? A fair question mate.

Do you believe laws are for all or laws are selective? do you believe amnesty for all or only for a select few?

Are laws applied impartially or yet again selective? (case in point) students on a train asking for independent investigation into corruption is deemed political and a crime and warrants/charged detained etc, and family members harassed, A (monk) leading a group (unsure of numbers) to protest at the US embassy is ok.

Consistency is key here. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

I believe the amnesty for Thaksin is the catalyst and it was.. too many people did not want it. I could not care less if they prosecuted the general for the coup. I have no love for the man, but he is far less a catalyst to an uprising as Thaksin. (coup might have been planned.. but without the amnesty for Thaksin the people would never have rallied) The guy is a convicted criminal with many more serious cases waiting for him. YL wanted those and 25.000 other corruption cases amnestied.. says enough I think. Compared with that a coup is nothing. (still would not mind if they went after the army for that)

As for select enforcement, I can give those to you too of your beloved PTP so don't act like the junta is only doing that PTP did the same. If you want I can come up with a list.

As the coup gets longer and longer, more people are starting to see its futility. No matter how this ends, if it ends or become like Burma, there will be no 'right' Constitution and elections will continue to be postponed sp General Happiness can stay in power through the succession and national mourning. I wasn't so keen on PT, though I liked Yingluck when she wasn't following Naliam's direction. However, IF we ever have elections again, we're sure to see nothing has changed. You can't game democracy. Dicks require only Article 44.

[facthailand]

Facebook and all the other social media sites, including should be outlawed on a global scale

. Anti social,you should start your own site.5555

I have been living in the Kingdom for 3 decades now and subsequently my wife and I have family and friends (not acquaintances) all over Thailand, and overseas as well. I use Facebook and find it a great way of passing on primarily current photos to the family, plus information on what my wife and I are currently doing. Other family members and friends reciprocate.

I use the security measures Facebook provides to ensure that the material I post ONLY goes to family and friends. And often I separate the two. I choose my friends carefully whom I have allowed access.

I do not post anything of a political or offensive nature. It's family business always. Anything that maybe posted by family (sometimes by the younger members), I will remove and tell them I'm not interested. If they persist I un-friend them, and to a Thai that is equivalent to losing face.

I find Facebook to be an enjoyable medium so that I and others know what the family are up to. What Mr. FourAces is suggesting is that I be denied this. Well I suggest you keep your doors locked and your shades drawn.

Does this mean you're a man with no opinion about his adopted home?

[metisdead]

A nonsense comment on moderation has been removed.

[facthailand]

I don't think either LINE or FACEBOOK will follow the General. Even he is PM at present he is only one of those in Thailand's history. The next govt. could change everything and the following change the changes.

So why to follow a General for 2 or 3 years...?

All this proposed censorship proves one thing for sure. Any election will be in the distant future.

I was going to hit 'Like' but...me don't like!

[facthailand]

I'm still confused about how they judge what content they could justifiably consider as harmful to the country. If I post about having to pay off a.policeman bribe or how I got forced to pay three times the fee or cost or if I post about how bad my trip in Thailand was or send a vdo of a chinaman pissing or shitting on the street doesn't that hurt Thailand's tourism, hence, damaging the country?

Or, if I posted a vdo of someone getting kidnapped by the army or of a business using slave Labour or even a girl on walking Street offering sex for money. All would.damage people view of Thailand in the gov viewpoint. So I guess my point is, if the line and fb jump to remove your content posted just because Thailand thinks it damages how they want people to think about them then all freedoms are gone and for anyone and in any country.

I'm still confused about how they judge what content they could justifiably consider as harmful to the country.

Check out the people who have been arrested for sedition, LM, the computer crimes act, and for public gathering and you will have a good idea of what they consider harmful to the country.

Harmful to the country:

• taking a train
• being a student
• being a politician
• being related to the previous two
• hitting 'like'
• making fun of dogs
• sharing videos

Any other questions?

PS: you are right in your last statement... At least in the mind of the junta leaders, that is clearly the goal...

then all freedoms are gone and for anyone and in any country.

Interesting to note that Facebook and Google are both totally banned in China.

However, Chinese netizens never got a taste of them, either. Here, that addictive cat is fully out of the bag. Banning Google, Facebook, LINE, WhatsApp, Instagram, Pinterest, people will start a revolution!

[facthailand]

They got YouTube to fall in line

That's not precisely true. When YouTube was blocked for seven months by the 2006 coup, their compromise was inventing geolocational blocking on request. Thailand started this and it's spread to many repressive govts.

[facthailand]

It's all เพื่อลุงที่รักของเรา. Even public figures can't take a joke!

[ramrod711]

The government has picked a fight they can't win. Try to stifle free speech in the cyber world we live in, impossible. Win hearts and minds by arresting folks for sharing their thoughts, reprehensible.

Unfortunately, you are wrong! Just look at what goes into and out of N. Korea. Nothing!

It is much more difficult to take away something people already have than to keep them from getting it in the first place. Can you imagine all the women in the country without Facebook or Line? I wouldn't want to be the one to tell them!

[SPB65]

Playground rules for a spoilt brat culture that is completely unable to grow up. Sorry Thailand, you're not a special case to anyone but yourself.

[tbthailand]

Wonder why the junta supporters are fewer and fewer on TVF.....

Come on, EJ, djjamie and other stalwarts, spin this one if you can. No wait, I'll do it for you; THAKSIN!

I liked the junta at first.. now I like them a lot less because of stuff like this. I still dislike the PTP too.. so not much choice for me now. If the laws that they are going to make keeps the PTP in line next election (forcing them to play by the rules and no secret votes at 3.00am or amnesties for Thanksin) then this has all been worth it. Otherwise it was all for nothing.

Don't forget who gave them the perfect excuse for street protests and the coup, (no amnesty for Thaksin and all of a sudden there was, just as bad as that stupid internet gateway the government is pushing for now U turns seem to be the norm here)

There is not one party to blame here, they all are. Anyway disliking more and more plans of the junta.

you're coming 'round

I think it would have been interesting to see ... if there had never been any amnesty bill, would there have been a coup? My feeling is that there would have been and that is based on the fact that Suthep & Co. were looking for reasons to force a crisis. They were trying all through the summer of 2013 to get the rage-machine running.

I agree that the amnesty bill was a gift to Suthep and his LINE buddy, Prayuth, but I think they would have found an excuse for it anyway... The rice program would have been next in line anyway...

[lvr181]

Facebook and all the other social media sites, including should be outlawed on a global scale

Looking for a position with the junta?

Nothing wrong with the media, social or otherwise. It is how some idiots that use it, that is the problem!

Perhaps smart Governments would use it to their advantage NOT ban it.

REMEMBER, the first casualty of "war" is truth.

[The Deerhunter]

Facebook and all the other social media sites, including should be outlawed on a global scale

Starting with your removal from this "social media" site, so as not to be a hypocritical a_hole.....

Oh no, not the social media sites he uses, only the ones he doesn't use and does't like. Obviously does not understand the definition of the term "social media."

[PaullyW]

The idiocity of so many of our fellow farangs is not so much in the fact that they, despite all the decades of Thai history, actually believed in this Junta. What is most ridiculous is that they believe that any side (PTP, Junta, etc) differ in any substantive way!

THEY ARE MOSTLY ALL THE SAME. ALL OF THEM!

lol

[tingtongfarang]

The idiocity of so many of our fellow farangs is not so much in the fact that they, despite all the decades of Thai history, actually believed in this Junta. What is most ridiculous is that they believe that any side (PTP, Junta, etc) differ in any substantive way!

THEY ARE MOSTLY ALL THE SAME. ALL OF THEM!

lol

Agreed!

They dont seem to realise thailand is incapable of forming a a clean enough government worth voting for and call eachother junta or thaksin fan boys,

Although after more than a decade here i fear the thai electorate suffer the same idiocy.