Thailands junta extends censorship

with mass online surveillance

By Saksith Saiyasombut & Siam Voices Sep 18, 2014
Thailands ruling military junta is further tightening its grip on the public discourse by
heightening its censorship measures, going as far as reportedly implementing
widespread surveillance of Thai Internet users. The new measure seeks to crush
criticism at the military government and to crack down on anything that is deemed
insulting to the royal institution also known as lse majest!.
"hen the Thai military declared martial law two days before it launched the coup of
#ay $$, $%&', one of the main targets was the complete control of the broadcast
media, which resulted in the presence of soldiers at all major television channels and
the shutdown of thousands of unlicensed community radio stations and over a do(en
politically partisan satellite T) channels, primarily those belonging to the warring
street protest groups.
*early five months later, most of these satellite T) channels +with one notable
exception, are back on the air but have been renamed and had to considerably toned
down their political leanings before they were allowed to broadcast again. The T)
hosts who were last years heavy-hitting political T) commentators are now hosting
entertainment programs or, if theyre lucky, return to a talk show format, but only in
the name of national .reform/ and .reconciliation/.
0ut the military junta, also formally known as the .*ational 1ouncil for 2eace and
3rder/ +*123,, still has a firm grip on the media, as it has set up specific monitor
watchdogs for different media platforms +and also specifically for foreign news outlets,
to screen out critical content against the *123. 4urthermore, it has practically issued
a gag order to the Thai media only then to reiterate that while criticism against the
military junta is allowed, it should only be done .in good faith/.
The censorship measures and the monitoring efforts also extend online. 5nlike during
the last military coup in $%%6, the emergence of social media networks makes it a
daunting uphill battle for the junta to control the narrative. *evertheless, the
authorities have always been eager to have more control to filter and censor online
content and have blatantly resorted tophishing for user information,
and even considered launching its own national social network. 7nd there was this8
In late May, a brief block of the social network Facebook sparked
uproar online, while statements by the Ministry for Information
and Telecommunication Technology (MICT) and the NC! o"er
whether or not the Facebook#block was ordered or it was an
$technical glitch% contradicted each other& It emerged later through a
the foreign parent company of a Thai telco company that there
actually was an order to block Facebook, for which it got scolded by
the Thai authorities&
Thailand's (unta sets up media watchdogs to monitor anti#coup
dissent$, )iam *oices+,sian Correspondent, -une ./, .012
The junta also reactivated its .1yber 9cout/-initiative, recruiting school children and
students to monitor online content for dissidents, and announced plans for internet
cafes to install cameras so that parents can remotely monitor what their kids are doing.
The towering motive of the juntas online monitoring efforts has been recently laid out
by outgoing army chief, junta leader and 2rime #inister :eneral 2rayuth 1han-ocha8
3en& rayuth outlined a strategy to $defend% the monarchy in a
speech (4) 5its6 transcript describes the monarchy as an important
element of Thai#style democracy and an institution that the 7oyal
Thai 3o"ernment is obliged to uphold $with loyalty and defense of 8is
Ma(estic ,uthority&%
9e will use legal measures, social#psychological measures, and
telecommunications and information technology to deal with those
who are not mindful of their words, are arrogant at heart, or harbour
ill intentions to undermine the important Institution of the nation,% the
speech reads&
:nder )ection 11. of Thailand's Criminal Codes, insulting the royal family
is a criminal offense punishable by up to 1; years in prison& The law,
known as lese ma(este, has been harshly enforced since the military staged
a coup against the elected go"ernment on .. May& (4)
rayuth *ows Tougher Crackdown !n ,nti#Monarchists$, <haosod
=nglish, )eptember 11, .012
7nd in order to achieve this, the junta reportedly doubled down its online
monitoring earlier this week8
Thai authorities reportedly planned to implement a sur"eillance
de"ice starting from 1; )eptember to sniff out Thai Internet users,
specifically targeting those producing and reading l>se ma(est?
content, a report says& ,lthough the report is yet to be confirmed, it
has created greater climate of fear among media&
rachatai has recei"ed unconfirmed reports from two different
sources& !ne said the de"ice targets keywords related to l>se ma(est?
and that it is relati"ely powerful and could access all kinds of
communication traffic on the internet& ,nother source said it could
e"en monitor communications using secured protocols&
,fter learning about this, a national le"el Thai#language newspaper
editorial team has reluctantly resorted to a policy of greater self#
censorship& Its editor warned editorial staff not to browse any l>se ma(est?
website at work and think twice before reporting any story related to l>se
ma(est?&
Thai authorities reportedly to conduct mass sur"eillance of Thai
internet users, targeting l>se ma(est?$, rachatai =nglish, )eptember
10, .012
3n "ednesday, it was reported that amidst severe internet slowdowns
across 9outheast 7siadue to a damaged undersea connection cable extra internet
filtering in Thailand has been activated.
There is no doubt that Thailands military junta is determined to go forward with its
own, very exclusive way of governing and tightly controlling the narrative
through widespread media censorship and massive online surveillance. 0y invoking
the need to .protect the monarchy/, the military has a convenient weapon to act
against dissidents in real life and in the virtual domain as well, no matter where they
are.
7ccording to the legal watchdog *:3 i;aw, over $<% people have been detained by the
junta between #ay $$ and 9eptember =. >ighty-six of them are facing trial, most of
them before a military court. 4ifteen of those are cases concerning lse majest!.
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7bout the author8
9aksith 9aiyasombut blogs extensively about Thai politics and current
affairs since $%&% and works as an international freelance broadcast
journalist. @ead his full bio on about.meAsaksith.
2osted by Thavam