Foreign adult websites are not longer blocked in Thailand

[pandora501]

I recently returned to Pattaya after a few months abroad. Was surprised to notice that foreign adult websites are no longer blocked in Pattaya (and probably in the whole of Thailand). They certainly were blocked as late as May this year. I also read in the local news a week or two ago one Thai official saying that viewing adult material is not illegal (I think this used to be illegal before). Is this another bone thrown to the (male) masses to keep them happy with the current political situation here? Or is this just a trap to identify those who view those website and then have some leverage against them in case such needed (for example by milking expats caught in the net)?

[Don Mega]

Hmmm, you joined the forum 4 hours ago and so far you have posted the same crap in 2 different section of the forum.

 

Are you a troll or just a <deleted> ?

 

[sniffdog]

Troll I would say. Youporn is still bring redirected to 203.xx

[pandora501]

Not a troll at all. I first started a topic in the General section but then realized that this would be more appropriate in Internet and Computers. Right now redtube is still accessible but just before I posted my message yesterday youporn and pornhub were not blocked. I use TOT. All 3 websites were accessible in Pattaya since late Aug when I arrived. It could be just a coincidence but shame on me if my post resulted in 2 of them getting blocked last night. Let's see if redtube will get blocked today after this post :). BTW a poster on the other thread agreed with me.

[chiang mai]

It seems odd that a person would come to Thailand to view internet porn, but hey ho, each to their own.

[Chicog]

Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm sure they'll get blocked again when someone notices.

[BuaBS]

31 minutes ago, pandora501 said:

Not a troll at all. I first started a topic in the General section but then realized that this would be more appropriate in Internet and Computers. Right now redtube is still accessible but just before I posted my message yesterday youporn and pornhub were not blocked. I use TOT. All 3 websites were accessible in Pattaya since late Aug when I arrived. It could be just a coincidence but shame on me if my post resulted in 2 of them getting blocked last night. Let's see if redtube will get blocked today after this post :). BTW a poster on the other thread agreed with me.

That was me and I'm in the north .  Let's hope "some-one " doesn't notice !

[KhunBENQ]

The statement in it's general is not true.

Must be an another "accident" at the blocking central (MICT).

Happens from time to time.

 

A well know such site starting with "y" (which I would never open except for research purposes ) is attempted to redirected to here:

203.113.26.210/?v0.42p2

and ends in a timeout.

203.113.26.210 is a ToT server.

 

Another very dirty site is unblocked for me:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

Dailymail:

Frequent readers in the forum might remember the never ending "blocked?"/"unblocked?" discussions.

[Don Mega]

37 minutes ago, pandora501 said:

Not a troll at all. I first started a topic in the General section but then realized that this would be more appropriate in Internet and Computers. Right now redtube is still accessible but just before I posted my message yesterday youporn and pornhub were not blocked. I use TOT. All 3 websites were accessible in Pattaya since late Aug when I arrived. It could be just a coincidence but shame on me if my post resulted in 2 of them getting blocked last night. Let's see if redtube will get blocked today after this post :). BTW a poster on the other thread agreed with me.

 

redtube/pornhub/youporn all blocked for me.

 

 

True is my ISP

[Chicog]

Chrome + Browsec extension, and then you can stop wasting everyone's time with these pointless conversations.

 

[Crossy]

@pandora501 did you forget to turn off your VPN before checking? Your OP puts you in The Netherlands and Post #4 flags you as being on an anonymous proxy.

 

Whilst the sites you mention don't appear to be blocked on my ToT connection I have, on occasion, been treated to the green screen of death and not just on gentleman's sites.

 

EDIT Purely for research purposes I checked and found all the above sites are blocked on AIS mobile data. The message isn't the green screen but it's a block anyway.

[pandora501]

14 hours ago, Crossy said:

@pandora501 did you forget to turn off your VPN before checking? Your OP puts you in The Netherlands and Post #4 flags you as being on an anonymous proxy.

 

Whilst the sites you mention don't appear to be blocked on my ToT connection I have, on occasion, been treated to the green screen of death and not just on gentleman's sites.

 

EDIT Purely for research purposes I checked and found all the above sites are blocked on AIS mobile data. The message isn't the green screen but it's a block anyway.

Nope, I accessed them directly without VPN via TOT. And yes, I'm trying to be anonymous as much as possible. In the past one could only access the sites via VPN or web proxies from Thailand. It's difficult to believe that TOT unblocked these sites by mistake while the other ISPs still block them. Maybe the authorities are carrying out a trial to seek out who the 'perverts' are  or experimenting with greater freedoms for the populace :)? Also strange that the dailymail.co.uk website is no longer blocked on TOT. It was certainly blocked earlier in the year.

The whole idea of internet censorship nowadays although looks a bit outdated as there are so many ways to bypass it. BTW, Opera browser now has a VPN built in, and it works well both on PC and Android devices. I've read that UAE has banned using VPNs and proxies when accessing the internet. Are they still officially legal in Thailand?

 

[thedemon]

48 minutes ago, pandora501 said:

Nope, I accessed them directly without VPN via TOT. And yes, I'm trying to be anonymous as much as possible. In the past one could only access the sites via VPN or web proxies from Thailand. It's difficult to believe that TOT unblocked these sites by mistake while the other ISPs still block them. Maybe the authorities are carrying out a trial to seek out who the 'perverts' are  or experimenting with greater freedoms for the populace :)? Also strange that the dailymail.co.uk website is no longer blocked on TOT. It was certainly blocked earlier in the year.

The whole idea of internet censorship nowadays although looks a bit outdated as there are so many ways to bypass it. BTW, Opera browser now has a VPN built in, and it works well both on PC and Android devices. I've read that UAE has banned using VPNs and proxies when accessing the internet. Are they still officially legal in Thailand?

 

 

TOT has always been more lax with blocking than the other big ISP's. Why? Because they don't take it very seriously.

 

This is taken from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Thailand

 

MICT blocks indirectly by informally "requesting" the blocking of websites by Thailand's 54 commercial and non-profit Internet service providers (ISPs). Although ISPs are not legally required to accede to these “requests”, MICT Permanent Secretary Kraisorn Pornsuthee wrote in 2006 that ISPs who fail to comply will be punitively sanctioned by government in the form of bandwidth restriction or even loss of their operating license.[citation needed] This is a powerful compulsion to comply.

 

All the other major ISP's are are private sector businesses and therefore do what they are told. TOT is a state owned enterprise and good luck to whomever at the MICT thinks they are going to restrict TOT's bandwidth or withdraw their licence.