Thailand’s Official Censor never got that far but he did manage to block 17,793 sites before a general election. In addition the Royal Thai Police claim to block a further 32,500. The junta obviously considered the Internet a dangerous place as its ICT Ministry introduced a Computer-Related Crimes Act to the military-appointed parliament as its first law.

The first draft of this cybercrime law included the death penalty, though, on final passage, the strictures were reduced to “only” 20 years for some computer crimes.
Censorship in Thailand has always been accomplished by government in secret. The number of websites blocked, its blocklists and the methods it uses to block have never been disclosed to the Thai public which pays for it.

However, the new cybercrime law required that the government seek a court order before blocking. However, since passage of the law, Web censorship has become far murkier, with Thailand’s 100 ISPs blocking blocking independently in order to avoid being criminalised under the law for illegal content transiting their servers and no court orders have been requested.

Now ISPs are required to keep all Internet traffic logs for 90 days. Two cyberdissidents have already been arrested under the new law tracked by their IP addresses for comments they made on Thailand’s monarchy to public Web discussion boards.
Most famously, Thailand’s official censor blocked YouTube for seven months in 2007 for sophomoric anti-monarchy videos posted to the site. The ICT Ministry blocked not only YouTube’s domain but 75 separate YouTube URLs before securing Google’s cooperation, in secret, to implement geolocational blocking at Thai government’s recommendation.

The difference between Internet censorship in Thailand and that in the Middle East, Myanmar and China is that Thailand is famously a Constitutional monarchy. We claim to be a democracy but operate government-in-secret, above the law.

Make no mistake: Internet censorship is illegal in Thailand under at least 11 articles of the 1997 Constitution, by decree of the lawmakers’ Council of State and by order of the Administrative Court. Has this stopped the censors? Didn’t even slow them now.
The 2007 YouTube block, hundreds of links to an unauthorised biography of King Bhumipol (The King Never Smiles, published by Yale University Press), anticoup Websites, sites in support of our deposed prime minister and voices from Thailand’s restive Southern provinces under the military junta were merely a harbinger of censorship to follow.

Now Thailand’s newly-elected government and its new ICT Minister are using lèse majesté as its ongoing excuse to block freedom of opinion and expression by Thais on issues vital to our society.

The past few weeks have seen YouTube blocked again as well as Prachatai, Thailand’s foremost independent news portal and Same Sky, a journal of social criticism. Both sites have popular public Web discussion boards. In the past, both sites have been warned by MICT to self-censor “sensitive” public comments.

At about 00.00 of 15 May 2008, internet users of TOT in the North, Northeast and South reported that their attempts to access “Prachatai” were blocked, and the following message is shown on the [above] screen (source: Prachatai.com)

However, both were closed this week without court order by the ICT Minister who was interviewed on May 14 on the Khao Den Praden Ron radio news programme. His comments reveal that, not only was he completely aware he was acting above the law, but that suggestion for the censorship came from those higher up in Thai government.

Quoting the Minister: “[Pursuing legal action] will…become a big scandal. We’d better suppress the news. Someone higher than me is of this opinion”. This means, of course, that the rose-apple is rotten to its core and that Thai bureaucrats engage in criminal acts with impunity.

Recently, the lèse majesté issue has been in the forefront of public discussion due to the arrests of Chotisak Onsoong and Chutima Penpak on several lèse majesté charges which could result in a minimum of 15 years in prison. They had refused to stand in respect for the Royal anthem at a cinema.

But Chotisak and Chutima are the tip of the iceberg; scores of lèse majesté hang over many from respected academics to our former prime minister to serving government ministers to a BBC reporter. Any person is free to charge another with lèse majesté and these laws have historically been used as a tool for tarnishing political rivals.

We must make very clear that, juvenile YouTube videos notwithstanding, Thailand’s King Bhumibol is not behind any lèse majesté charges. The King has publicly invited criticism and has a long tradition of pardoning those sentenced for lèse majesté.

This vendetta against Thai people is being conducted by Thai bureaucrats as an excuse for repression of free speech and to create a climate of fear in which all of us will be afraid to voice any opinions. They are presuming to speak for the King which is a primary definition of lèse majesté.
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission on November 15, 2006 and Thailand’s freedom of information body, the Official Information Commission, on March 23, 2007, over Internet censorship, both to no definitive result.

FACT has also made available a CD of circumvention tools “Beat the Censors - Unblock ICT!” for download. Using such tools makes Internet censorship obsolete.
FACT’s petition (also here) against all censorship is still active and I urge all readers to sign it in our support. Without your help, we will never have free speech.

The canary in the coal mine and the dove of peace are both dying in Thailand. Censorship is the barometer of freedom and it is being used wholesale to bludgeon the public into submission.

The editor of Same Sky told the daily web newspaper Prachatai that “the ICT forced the host server to stop hosting his website, otherwise the company would not be able to access its servers to continue providing a service to other websites.”

According to Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) the closure of Fah Diew Kan is illegal under Thailand’s new Computer-Related Crimes Act. “All such censorship must occur solely by court order and no application was made for one. Court application must be preceded by a letter of inquiry, not immediate closure.“

The detainee is a 36 year-old computer programmer who posted comments on web-boards using a well-known alias. According to the source, the person was detained for 6 days at the Police Crime Suppression Division office before being transferred to the remand prison on August 30.

When contacted by telephone to confirm the arrest, Information and Communication Technology Minister, Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, said “I don’t know about it. And if someone were arrested under the law, I would not be informed.”

Computer Crime Act Thailand

According to The Nation, the Thai government has lifted its ban on YouTube after a deal was made between the video-sharing site and local Thai officials. Youtube “agreed to block any video clips deemed offensive to Thai people or those that violate Thai law.”

YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc, was blocked on April 4th, 2007 following the appearance on the site of material critical of the country’s revered monarch: King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thailand’s ICT Minister, Dr Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, declared to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SAPA) “When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban.”

However, tow Youtube like video sharing sites, Veoh and Metacafe have been banned according to Asia Sentinel:

Veoh, a site similar to YouTube, was blocked earlier this month after a user posted a rrisque personal video purportedly of the Thai Royal Family. ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom has said that YouTube would be unblocked once Thailand’s internet service providers (ISPs) have installed cache engines that allow officials to block individual URLs instead of entire websites. Supposedly this was going to happen a month ago, but still today visitors get this Thai-language message when clicking on YouTube, Veoh or Metacafe: “Sorry [state telecom company] TOT as an organization of Thailand has seized the connection of this website due to certain content, messages and images that are inappropriate that have had a tremendous impact on the hearts of Thai people.”

“Sorry. TOT Plc., as an organization of Thai people, has restrained the access to this website as it contains content, text, and/or picture that is unappropriated which affects the mind of Thai people all over the country and cannot be accepted.”
(Source: National Blockpages Gallery via Prachatai.com| Global Voices Advocacy Blog)

On August 22th, 2007, access to wordpress.com blogging platform has been blocked by TOT (Telecommunication Authority) preventing Thai Internet users from accessing Thai Wordpress and all blogs hosted on wordpress.com. “A notice has been shown when trying to access any Wordpress page: “Sorry. TOT Plc., as an organization of Thai people, has restrained the access to this website as it contains content, text, and/or picture that is unappropriated which affects the mind of Thai people all over the country and cannot be accepted.”

In a recent update, Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) confirmed that “ until the evening of Friday 24 August, it is still impossible to access Wordpress.com from TOT service. The symptom is unpredictable, actually, as sometimes it can be access, but sometimes cannot.”

Lats week, on August 17, 2007, the Turkish Fatih Second Civil Court of First Instance blocked access to the entire wordpress.com domain after alleged libel of Turkish Islamic-creationist, Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya.

Computer Crime Act Thailand

To date, Thailand’s ICT Minister, Dr Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, has not kept his promise to unblock the popular video-sharing site, YouTube. YouTube, which is owned by Google, was blocked by the Thai government in April 2007, following the appearance on the site of material critical of the country’s king. Last month, Sitthichai declared to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SAPA) “When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban.” Despite the removal of the video that mocks King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the ban on Google’s YouTube website is yet to be lifted. The Minister is requesting the removal of a single video frame which, according to him, still remains on YouTube. “That’s not enough. We want the picture removed, too, before we unblock it,” Sitthichai said. And in a recent interview with the International Herald Tribune Sitthichai declared that “YouTube is not a very essential Web site“.

But another Google-owned website has been reported to have been blocked by number of Thai ISPs: the popular blogging platform Blogger. According to an email from Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT), this ban was “due to a single blog critical of Thailand’s military coup, Saturday Voice.” Now Blogger “seems to be accessible using True ISP but not Telephone Organization Thailand TOT Public Company Limited,” FACT adds.

In addition to censoring websites, Thailand’s military government is introducing legislation that will criminalize the use of circumvention tools (see a draft of the Cybercrime Bill) like circumvention software and anonymous proxies, to access blocked websites. The legislation, which has been approved by the National Legislative Assembly and will become law after it receives approval from the King, also carries a penalty of up to five years in prison “and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht (US$2,700)” for disseminating “improper” content over the Internet. “The new cybercrime law, waiting for Royal assent will, 30 days following, come into effect. If the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) has been as sneaky as we suspect, the law can be applied to anyone using circumvention software, anonymous proxies or any other method which conceals one’s real IP,” said FACT coordinator CJ Hinke in an email exchange.

Since the coup d’état of 19 September 2006 against the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – whose many supporters’ website have also been blocked since last May due to “security concerns” - “the Internet censorship has risen 500%, up now to more than 45,000 websites are blocked by several government agencies,” said Hinke. A blocklist from the MICT (secret May 28, blocklist) available from FACT includes 11,329 websites that have been banned in the past four months a total of 17,793 in total. According to FACT, “this is an increase of 90 political websites blocked in April alone.”
“MICT’s blocklist shows a frightening increase in thought control and abrogation of civil liberties and human rights in Thailand (…) the new military government of Thailand has taken all of us to a new dimension of repression. 2007 may well be the 21st century’s 1984 in Thailand,,” writes FACT, comparing the Thai situation to that described in the famous novel by British writer George Orwell, which popularized the phrase, “Big Brother is watching.”

According to the Open Net Initiative, “the current official approach toward filtering is in flux”. However, and while Thailand’s military-backed government is undermining online freedom of speech by blocking critical websites and censoring Web discussion boards, FACT activists are doing a brilliant job fighting back and increasing public awareness of the issue. FACT is maintaining a very active and constantly updated [blog] campaign, reporting on censorship, running petitions, providing circumvention tools and guides (in Thai and English) for anonymous blogging and bypassing censorship. FACT publishes the government’s secret block lists with detailed analyses and has mobilized a street demonstration at the country’s premier computer venue described as “nonviolent civil disobedience”. In a demonstration held on June 9, 2007, at Pantip Plaza, FACT activists distributed “a gift of freedom” to Thai Internet users, ”T-shirts! buttons! stickers! and…thousands of copies of a free CD-ROM, “Beat the Censors–Unblock ICT!”

The “Beat the Censors–Unblock ICT!” CD “features 41 software applications to circumvent Website-blocking by Thai censors, anonymous proxy servers and MICT’s secret blocklists, in both English & Thai. Many international websites and NGO’s are offering to host the CD on their servers for download. FACT activists have also made “Beat the Censors” available on BitTorrent peer-to-peer networks with cross-platform versions (Windows, Linux and Macintosh).

FACT likes to call the CD its first “weapon of mass instruction”. “In fact, the disk is applicable for use in any censored country. Only the Thai-specific information needs to be deleted and the English needs to be translated into a local language. Unblock the world!” said Ajarn CJ in our email exchange.

I spoke with CJ Hinke, FACT founder and coordinator, about the FACT campaign, the filtering situation in Thailand and its implications and consequences as a result of the new cybercrime law:

Sami: On Bangkok Pundit I learned that number of Thai ISPs have blocked the entire blogspot.com subdomain. Can you tell me more about this new development?

CJ Hinke: Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) activists are quite certain the entire domain was blocked due to a single blog critical of Thailand’s military coup, Saturday Voice. Blogger.com seems to be accessible using True ISP but not TOT Public Company Limited. Blogs are not so easy to block separately and the Thai government has shown no sense of discretion. If a site provides public spaces for individuals to post websites and some of those sites turn out to be pornographic, the entire domain gets blocked.

They have not yet blocked Wordpress, where FACT is located, although we’ve been getting clear warning signals. They are especially upset that FACT posts their secret blocklists along with access to circumvention software and anonymous proxies
However, FACT is making sure the whole world is watching.

Sami: Can you provide us with a brief overview of the Freedom Against Censorship Thailand campaign? Is the site of the campaign blocked? And what about the Thai blogsphere, are the Thai bloggers highly politicized? Are they using blogs to contest the military government?

CJ Hinke: FACT was formed in November 2006 as a campaign to petition the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand against Internet censorship. The NHRC has not yet handed down its ruling but this will have no force in law; it is merely a recommendation.

FACT has also petitioned the Official Information Commission to attempt some transparency and accountability in government.
The censorship climate has deteriorated greatly since Sept 19’s coup. Internet censorship has risen 500%, up now to more than 45,000 websites blocked by several government agencies. The previous government had plans to block 800,000 websites and this number is surfacing again here.

Yes, Thai bloggers are very political, focusing, exposing and fighting many different aspects of Thai politics.

Sami: Can you tell us more about the consequences for freedom of expression of the new ‘Internet’ law and the filtering situation in the country? It seems that the bill will outlaw any attempt to get around government censorship to access blocked websites deemed amoral or offending the country’s monarchy. How can you describe that and what are the reactions of the Thai blogsphere in particular and the Internet users in general vis-à-vis the new Law?

CJ Hinke: The new cybercrime law, formally the Computer-Related Crimes Act, was proposed by the “Official Censor of the Military Coup” before the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly. Its original draft included the death penalty and life imprisonment for some computer crimes.

The bill sat in committee for five months composed of senior police, old judges and long-term bureaucrats, mostly digital dinosaurs. (It is typical in the Thai government for officials and employees to not even do email.) There were scant few open-minded and forward-looking members, but the law made some progress in revision–only 20 years maximum.

Internet censorship is not legal in Thailand and is specifically unconstitutional. Thailand’s principal law drafters and interpreters, the Council of State, decreed ‘net censorship illegal as did the Administrative Court in the ruling against the blocking of Midnight University.

Government has been waiting for the right climate for this law since 1997, when I first opposed censorship here. Curiously, however, the new law made no mention or attempt at censorship. Most of us were considerably relieved by this. However, some of the law’s provisions are being interpreted in order to criminalize a computer user for simply viewing a Web page with unspecified questionable content, even if it has not been blocked. It further criminalizes ISPs by making them responsible for any such content transiting their servers, however briefly. Turning ISPs into cybercops is a big incentive for them to censor indiscriminately, just in case. Furthermore, all IP log data must be retained by ISPs for at least 90 days; government now knows where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. Concealing one’s IP address is also now illegal as is access to anonymous proxies. In addition, it appears that circumvention software is now in the same class of “illegal instructions” as worms and viruses.

The very fact that the law was passed by overwhelming assent, 119-1, has given the censors, already out of control with their own power, huge confidence. When Thailand has a Constitution again and when the first ‘cybercrime’ case goes to court, these issues may be better defined.

For an excellent analysis of the situation, look for Article XIX’s recommendations and, in another context, read EPIC’s comments on the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime; none of these recommendations were considered or adopted.

Sami: Have any bloggers or online writers in your country been jailed for their activities? Are you witnessing a crackdown on cyber activists? Are you collaborating with other cyber activists from neighboring countries facing similar situations?

CJ Hinke: No, at present, we have no imprisoned citizen journalists nor an obvious “crackdown”. However, with the rise of voices decrying the violent situation in Thailand’s Muslim South and blaming the coup government for our democratic vacuum, I think it will be only a matter of time before some government bureaucrat with an itchy trigger finger will want to try to flex the muscle of the new law. FACT may well become the prime target because we post the government’s secret blocklists as well as links to circumvention software and anonymous proxies. The government recently changed blocking methods. Until recently, the blocklist was circulated to Thailand’s 54 ISPs and FACT posted it regularly. Government switched to blocking directly at Thailand’s four ‘net gateways and… FACT still publishes the blocklist!

FACT is hoping to make use of circumvention software and anonymous proxies so common throughout every strata of Thai computer life that it will be difficult to call it civil disobedience. Nevertheless, such criminal activity can get one two-four years in prison.

FACT is largely alone out here, though we have sought the vocal support of many major international human rights, civil liberties and good governance organizations, largely without success. We currently have more than 600 signers and a core group of activist coordinators, spokespersons, and tech team. Living under martial law and emergency decree with a military government and no Constitution make FACT’s situation challenging.

“When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban,” said ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom.