Thai ISPs to pressure Facebook on illegal sites

[webfact]

Thai ISPs to pressure Facebook on illegal sites
By JIRAPAN BOONNOON, 
ASINA PORNWASIN
THE NATION

 

BANGKOK: -- ELEVEN local Internet service providers have agreed to pressure Facebook to delete the accounts of webpages that contain content that is illegal in Thailand.

 

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said the NBTC had collaborated with local ISPs to block many websites deemed as illegal, and more than 600 were set to be blocked next week. However, many such sites have URLs on servers located outside Thailand, which are more secure than those based here.

 

“We are waiting to negotiate with Facebook to find measures to close the illegal webpages so that URLs that provide content in Thailand must practise under Thai law,” Takorn said.

 

Local ISPs provide 95 per cent of the Internet services in Thailand. However, some sites the authorities disapprove of get around local blockages by registering on Facebook. Therefore, on Wednesday 11 members of Thai Internet Service Provider Association (TISPA) sent an e-mail to Facebook asking for its cooperation.

 

Morragot Kulatumyotin, president of TISPA, said the association now had 19 active ISPs among its membership, such as Internet Thailand (INET), CS Loxinfo, True Internet, Advanced Wireless Network, DTAC TriNet, CAT Telecom, TOT, KSC Commercial Internet and Jasmine Internet. 

 

Vasu Khunvasi, director of True Internet Corporation, said local ISPs expected Facebook to cooperate on this issue as it plans to expand its business in Thailand.

 

Facebook already has more than 41 million members in Thailand and the country has high growth potential for the Internet giant. 

 

A Facebook spokesman said: “When governments believe that something on the Internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content. When we receive such a request, it is scrutinised to determine if the specified content does indeed violate local laws. If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted.” 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/EconomyAndTourism/30314251

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-05

 

[yellowboat]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

However, many such sites have URLs on servers located outside Thailand, which are more secure than those based here

Yes, thankfully. 

 

It will be interesting which sites are blacklisted.  Discussions of commemorative plaques mentioned anywhere will probably be poo poo'd for a while.  

[rkidlad]

Thais are pretty apathetic people, but take away their beloved Facebook, you're gonna have a big problem on your hands.

 

The passengers in the back of a pick-up will have nothing on this. 

[biggles45]

Censorship, sounding more like Nort Korea or China every day 

[Muggi1968]

Vpn solve all problems..

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, biggles45 said:

Censorship, sounding more like Nort Korea or China every day 

There is an Asian country where any criticism of the government can lead to arrest and detention, where its citizens are brainwashed from birth to worship the leader and any negative comments can be reported by any citizen against another and be punished with a long period in prison, where tv every night shows the good leader helping his citizens enjoy a better life, a country where his picture adorns every public building and is in every home, and defacing any such pictures can lead to a lengthy jail sentence, a country where news is censored and internet sites blocked, and people can be sentenced to prison for speaking the truth. North Korea. Its resemblance to any other Asian nation is purely coincidental.

[wakeupplease]

What is deemed inappropriate here may well be appropriate elsewhere so FB has a big problem upset the locals or upset the world, the world will win every time.

 

But Muggi1968 is right on the button and it only costs a few B (get a paid one) and for safety its a must as you will never be blocked again from anything.

[Jonmarleesco]

I assume FB has, at this precise moment, better things with which to concern itself than LoS's lunacies.

[anotheruser]

4 hours ago, Muggi1968 said:

Vpn solve all problems..

This is exactly why we need a single gateway.

[seajae]

would like to know which sites first before getting too upset, while I disagree with some of the laws here I still have to follow them as I live here. Part of living in another country is following their laws whether we agree or not, thats part and parcel of living in countries other than our own plus without knowing which sites they are it is a bit hard to make any judgements about them. We can come in here and have a general bitch about them but even in Australia there are certain things that are not allowed online, its each countries rights to do so, just be glad it isnt anywhere near as bad as north korea, china, russia and others

[candide]

From what I read elsewhere, there is already one case showing Facebook did comply with those requests.

[anotheruser]

15 hours ago, seajae said:

would like to know which sites first before getting too upset, while I disagree with some of the laws here I still have to follow them as I live here. Part of living in another country is following their laws whether we agree or not, thats part and parcel of living in countries other than our own plus without knowing which sites they are it is a bit hard to make any judgements about them. We can come in here and have a general bitch about them but even in Australia there are certain things that are not allowed online, its each countries rights to do so, just be glad it isnt anywhere near as bad as north korea, china, russia and others

 

The problem is whose laws should the internet follow? Thailand can ban Facebook if they want to. I don't think the world has to be subject to Thailand's whims. If that is the case then why not follow North Koreas laws and everybody else's. Thailand is known to limit freedom of speech. 

 

Let Thailand take whatever action they want inside their country. they already censor the net on their own. The onus isn't on Facebook to enforce Thai laws.

[Moonmoon]

dang... there goes CUP E and Sexy Angels...

[manarak]

3 hours ago, anotheruser said:

 

The problem is whose laws should the internet follow? Thailand can ban Facebook if they want to. I don't think the world has to be subject to Thailand's whims. If that is the case then why not follow North Koreas laws and everybody else's. Thailand is known to limit freedom of speech. 

 

Let Thailand take whatever action they want inside their country. they already censor the net on their own. The onus isn't on Facebook to enforce Thai laws.

I agree with that point of view.

Local powers should take appropriate measures to regulate their local internet as they see fit, period.

They have power over the local internet and can block/filter everything they want.

 

Strangely enough, many countries choose to not censor the internet but rather to whine about illegal foreign content and prosecute where they can, mostly their own citizens.

[manarak]

from the original article:

Quote

Facebook already has more than 41 million members in Thailand and the country has high growth potential for the Internet giant. 

 

hmm... on the contrary, Thailand having a population of about 68 million it seems they already have realized most of their growth potential, or does Facebook want that people register several accounts ?

[KhunBENQ]

6 hours ago, anotheruser said:

Thailand can ban Facebook if they want to.

Technically they could block FB completely.

But the patience of Thai people has it's limits too.

Take away the favorite toy of millions of users and they might cross a line.

Favorite toy or preferred drug of internet addicts, whatever you want to call it.

(compare with the story of "no passengers on back of pickup")

[anotheruser]

33 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Technically they could block FB completely.

But the patience of Thai people has it's limits too.

Take away the favorite toy of millions of users and they might cross a line.

Favorite toy or preferred drug of internet addicts, whatever you want to call it.

(compare with the story of "no passengers on back of pickup")

Yeah this exactly true. But I feel they should block FB before interfering with the freedom to operate of companies like FB. It would probably be the only move Thailand could make to motivate their people. 

Edited May 6, 2017 by anotheruser

[elgordo38]

On 5/5/2017 at 8:06 AM, webfact said:

Vasu Khunvasi, director of True Internet Corporation, said local ISPs expected Facebook to cooperate on this issue as it plans to expand its business in Thailand.

 

They always have a  hook just search for it. Out and out definition would be blackmail I guess. Other countries call it freedom of speech here well its open for interpretation according to the junta mandate. 

[elgordo38]

With the utmost government encouragement of course. 

[gk10002000]

So Facebook spokesperson says if they determine the sites to violate local laws they will block the site.  So where exactly will they look to see the local laws?  When you throw out a constitution, do you just look to what a current coup leader mandates?

[gk10002000]

On 5/5/2017 at 5:43 AM, Muggi1968 said:

Vpn solve all problems..

no, because i am pretty sure the IP address or URLs from the sites they don't want would never get into the Thai network.  I am sure the Thai officials will or have partially implemented their choke points and will monitor most internet traffic in and out of the country.

[the guest]

Quite pointless Thailand trying to block websites, as all can be opened if you have the knowhow. 

[candide]

49 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

So Facebook spokesperson says if they determine the sites to violate local laws they will block the site.  So where exactly will they look to see the local laws?  When you throw out a constitution, do you just look to what a current coup leader mandates?

Very simple: all what is needed is a court order  based on Section 14(3) of the Computer Crimes Act, for matter of national security. And anything the junta deems to be so can be a matter of national security.

[pentap]

Simple solution, completely ban access to Facebook?




Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[FredNL]

Facebook's name is written wrong. The "c" must be a "k": Fakebook !!!

On Thursday evening I noticed the message underneath. Two friends from the Netherlands would have liked Ikea Thailand. Both friends have never visited Ikea Thailand's facebook page nor have they liked it. I have asked them and both denied. They never even visited nor liked another facebook page from Ikea. They have checked this on my request. 

 

One week earlier, my wife was on her facebook and she noticed a sponsored message that I had liked some Thai Facebook page about some somtam shop. She showed me. I said that Facebook were mayor imposters. I don't like somtam, never liked somtam and I will never like somtam or a some somtam shop !!!

 

So on Friday morning I posted this message: 

 

Facebook is the biggest liar ever and is spreading fake messages !!! Only to generate  (extra) revenue !!!
Ikea Thailand just needs to pay for this fake messaging from Fuckbook of Fakebook...

Also my best friend has spended loads of money having a promotion campaign on Fakebook. Result: Lost several hundreds of thousands Thai Baht and not even received 1 more customer on his website. I am his internet provider and can see where all vistors came from and their referals. According to Fakebook he has reached over 5 million people in Bangkok alone, all having a Bachelors degree as minimum education. Yeah sure, right now he is sueing Facebook Thailand for a refund. In court facebook is having other figures than the logs on the server and from Google Analytics. Fakebook saying having 5,000,000 click-throughs within 20 days to the website while the website only had 250 visitors during the same period with 82% of the IP addresses already logged in before the fakebook period !!! So who is f-u-c-k-i-n-g up ??? My logs, Google Analytics or Fuckbook Thailand ???

 

And 8 hours later, I am having a 30 day ban on Fakebook for sending fake messages !!! Of course they have deleted my post. They don't want or won't see the truth nor allowing people to know the truth. They treat the truth as fake messaging, banning the people that are telling the truth. I hope that there will be an equivalent very soon for fakebook. It's better to ban facebook entirely for spreading fake messages !!!
 

 

Edited May 7, 2017 by FredNL

[FredNL]

8 hours ago, the guest said:

Quite pointless Thailand trying to block websites, as all can be opened if you have the knowhow. 

99.99 % of the Thai don't have any knowhow. Barely enough knowhow to stay alive.

Edited May 7, 2017 by FredNL

[YetAnother]

"must practise under Thai law";

and what exactly is that these days ? anything the thai govt doesnt like apparently; guised under 'national security'

so is facebook going to try to interpret this ? i bet not;

so are thai ISPs going to do the guessing ?

[Mike555]

I hope FB tells them to F off and they get blocked. Because if you suddenly took away FB access to 48million people addicted to it, they would turn on Prayut faster than you can say "Thainess." 

[anon4546543]

On 2017-5-5 at 5:10 PM, wakeupplease said:

What is deemed inappropriate here may well be appropriate elsewhere so FB has a big problem upset the locals or upset the world, the world will win every time.

 

But Muggi1968 is right on the button and it only costs a few B (get a paid one) and for safety its a must as you will never be blocked again from anything.

As you live in England, I assume when you say " What is deemed inappropriate here" you are referring to England?

Yeah, England sure does have problems, Brexit being a biggy. But I thought England had its FB issues solved?

[beautifulthailand99]

What pics are they trying to ban ? Apres moi - le deluge !

Edited May 11, 2017 by beautifulthailand99