Internet censorship

While it feels like an AI-assisted story at the Chiang Rai Times, “Exploring The Extent of Internet Censorship in Thailand” still has some useful reminders about censorship and the need to use a VPN.

It observes:

The 1997 Constitution of Thailand guaranteed freedom of speech. However, after a military coup in 2006, that freedom was eradicated [PPT: and so was that constitution]. Thai citizens have to be extra careful with things they say online. Sadly, that censorship continuously grows.

The censorship is state censorship. Websites may be blocked by the:

Communications Authority of Thailand, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), or the Royal Thai Police. Sometimes, these blocks and bans come due to an official court order. Others occur a little differently…. The MICT does not order that these websites be blocked, but requests that the nonprofit ISPS in Thailand block them. These nonprofits do not have to comply as there is no court order, but they suffer if they do not. They either lose bandwidth or their operating license. In short, they must either comply or face losing their business.

And, there is the ubiquitous self-censorship.

Censorship extends to various social media platforms. The data in the story all seem a little dated, but it claims that it is still the monarchy that gets most state attention.

For regular readers, it will be obvious that many lese majeste cases of the past few years have emanated from ultra-royalist snitches who patrol Facebook, searching for any material that they can complain about, get the police to act and lockup “offenders.” The authorities regularly seek to block YouTube and Facebook pages, but just as regularly use them in court.