Slashdot Mirror
Thailand Shuts Down 43,000 More Websites
An anonymous reader writes "Bangkok Post reports that the Thai government has now shut down over 43,000 websites deemed defamatory to the royal institution. Thai ISPs are warned to cooperate 'voluntarily' or lose their license. This is in addition to 17,000+ that were recently blocked for 'national security,' including both Facebook and Twitter accounts."
We'll freaking do it. Don't think we won't, Thailand!
Should have designed the internet to be more resistant to oppressive governments.
Since they are more dangerous than nuclear weapons anyway.
Interestingly, Bangkok is only the international name, in Thai it's called Krungthep.
is that the idiocy of one country will force people to care about what happens to their own - that Thailand will be a warning about where the UK et. al. are headed.
Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
from what I heard the King of Thailand was a decent guy. Apparently there were a number of PMs in the last few years who have been sacked for one reason or another, and the only one who wasn't tossed out was the one that the King put into power himself (and he only did it because the country was having problems trying to appoint a PM or something...).
Hopefully the Thai people can sort all this stuff out. Maybe after they get the government running smoothly, then they can talk to the King about the possibility of changing these laws.
coding is life
Interestingly, Bangkok is only the international name, in Thai it's called Krungthep.
Does Krungthep say, in Thai, anything about banging cocks?
Yes, it's a serious question.
Stop smirking!
I really wish this would have happened here, in Sweden. Then there would be a public outrcy, the monarchy would have been abolished in 2 seconds, and we wouldn't have to suffer this stupid coverage of the crown princess and her upcoming boring wedding every XXXXXXX minute on every XXXXXXX channel. Our king might be harmless, but he's hardly more important than uncensored access to the internet.
The King is a fink!
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Actually the real full name of bangkok is
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
it means
The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma
...thanks to this page. I live in Thailand, and it's not so bad as what you might think. But... I have to use one of those private VPN services in order to get halfway decent speed on my connection because all int'l data is throttled, and bittorrents are almost entirely blocked on some ISPs. My former ISP had a faulty censorship proxy and it would regularly serve up random "blocked" pages on legit sites for no reason. But even with a 8mps ADSL connection, I still find faster internet service when tethering my iphone to 3G (which still isn't officially allowed here), so Thailand still has a long way to go.
As a dutch resident, I can only say that I welcome the fact that we are a kingdom. Not because I particularly like our royal family, but because of the horror of the alternative. We have a few important political separations in our society:
You won't learn the last one at school, but it is very important. We have a queen to do official openings, shake hands, etc. but she cannot make political dicisions (though technically, she has a very tiny amount of political power left)
Now the alternative. A lot of polictical parties would like to do away with our monarchy and install a president with political powers. Like the situation in Germany, France, the USA, etc. The president of the USA can declare a war. Personally. Thank goodness our queen cannot.
I gladly admit that a democratic monarchy is old-fashioned, expensive and looks like a lot of theatre. But there is hardly anything better.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Sounds like a mugger walking up to you and asking you to voluntarily hand over your cash, or he'll be forced to shoot you. Just about any time someone is asking you to "voluntarily" do something, it's just a veiled threat.
They make between 900,000 and a million automobiles a year, have a diversified economy and are a net food exporter.
"Thailand has a GDP worth 8.5 trillion Baht (on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis), or US$627 billion (PPP). This classifies Thailand as the 2nd largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Despite this, Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the 4th richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia."
They have a million person military with advanced fighters like the F-16 block 50 and Saab/BAE Gripen
The UN classifies them as Developing, where the classic "third world country" is an under developed country.
Really the only thing that links all the under developed countries to the classical Cold War "third world country" is that all third world country demand and receive Western aid.
And if slashdot is not blocked, the Thai net censors have been a little negligent.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I seriously doubt that many these closings have must to do with the current king or even the royal family. Considering the recent large protests in Thailand, I'm reasonably confident that this is much more about the current power elites trying to keep the protests down.
The only problem I have with this logic, (peace is better than freedom), is that once the government controls this access, and peace returns, they will not return these freedoms. It will be a long long time before these restrictions are lifted. I know that Abe Lincoln returned free press to the US after the Civil War was over, but I think that was not the norm. And btw, I am NOT a Red-Shirt sympathizer. even if their collectivist ideals are benevolent, I am VERY anti-communist, but their right to be heard is MY right to be heard, and I will defend it.
Most Thais view the monarchy as a symbol of national pride, mutual respect, and is part of their overall spiritualism. For example, before any movie begins everyone stands to the national anthem and images of the current King doing good deeds and meeting with the public. It reminds me much of how we used to say the pledge of allegiance in grammar school. Many Asian cultures (past and present) have rules against defamatory content re: the monarchy, with Nepal being one of them up until the current decade. It's really not a big deal to anyone over here...it's more a form of public politeness then anything else. As far as this being some form of political censorship, think again, it's not. The Thais have much more freedom to express their political views then say Americans. Can anyone imagine a protest in America where LAX was shut down for a week and filled with protesters against the Bush regime? How about the takeover of Times Square by the Tea Party People for a few weeks, complete with cots, barbed wire, and slingshots? It would never happen; the protestors would be shot (perhaps) dead and then carted away within a few hours. Hell, try smoking a fag on the beach in LA and u get a ticket! .
I think therefore I can't be ~TTNH
Hit the nail on the head.
This is also about trying to draw supporters to the government by saying, "look, we support the king" despite what HRH has to say about Thailand's leste majesty laws (HINT: He openly doesn't support them).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I stole a nickname from there and they haven't bothered to try to get it back.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
No.
In Thai the correct connotation for that is "jack wow" or "chuck wow" depending on your accent. It means to "fly (your own) kite".
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
It's not blocked yet. I live in Bangkok.
Oddly, most of the sites I come across that are blocked are porn sites, and not many of them (i.e. it's not difficult to access porn as most sites are not blocked).
*ahem*
I mean sites that my friend comes across. Yeah, that's the ticket. Anyway, the blocks are easily avoided by proxy services, and they are really slow about blocking those. Although, anonymouse.org has recently (in the past few months) come under the block list.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
...and I should know since I've traveled there many times and I even speak .
Thailand gets a worse name than it deserves, based on stories like this. It's actually a relatively open society and just about every development index has them at the top of "developing country" (if they could clean up their tap water, they'd probably break the threshold). Speech is only limited when it comes to the King and Buddha, both of which are highly respected, but not really "in power" (influential, but not making and enforcing laws). Of course, that doesn't make their censorship ethical, but it shouldn't be considered to be an oppressive government.
There's an an ounce of justification to the recent violence, but most of it came from the rural poor with nothing to lose, fighting for the one PM who stood up for them. Unfortunately, that politician that tried to help out the poor (Thaksin Siniwatra), accumulated no less than $2.2 billion while in office, and accused of countless corruption charges (convicted on a couple of them in absentia while he living in exile). Many poor refuse to admit he's corrupt, or say "well sure he is, all the politicians are, but at least he helps out the poor that desperately need it." The situation really is a mess, with no clean way to bridge the gap between the poor and the middle+ class. While they have some political instabilities right now, I would still consider it to be the most awesome place on Earth (where else can you go that has virtually no violent crime, you can get 1 hour Thai massage for $4 and the best Pad Thai ever for $0.50?).
I think that the monarchy will be phased out soon anyway, as the King's health is waning and the crown prince is not very well liked, despite the lese mejeste laws. But make no mistake, despite such laws, the king was justifiably considered a "benevolent dictator." He is an engineer, and used his skills to plan and update infrastructure in the country to help out both the rich and the poor. There was actually reason to like him.
Actually the real full name of bangkok is
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
it means
The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma
Confucius say: Man who go through airport turnstile sideways going to Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Where is representative Joe L. Barton (R) when you need him to point out a classic isp "shakedown".
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Hope you enjoyed reading slashdot.. Bhumibol Adulyadej is a cunt. byeee!
I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
Actually there is no place called Bangkok ... It's called Krung Thep (or the full ceremonial name), this was a newly built city, after it was moved from Thonburi on the other bank ... there was a small town in the vicinity called Bangkok before all this, now absorbed into the city
It's a bit like everyone outside New York referring to it as Fort Nassau !
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
@"It's a rather weird suggestion as the internet was designed by a government agency."
What you say is a blatant straw man argument. He was talking about using the Internet to resist government oppression then you turn it around to then ridicule your twisted version of what he said.
Not only should the Internet have been designed to be more resistant to oppressive governments, people should learn to be more resistant to Machivalian two faced manipulation tactics like your blatant straw man argument, because governments also use such tactics to seek to distract and undermine people away from what is being discussed.
good thing they abbreviated it for us....i got lost after the 2nd syllable...
Just about any time someone is asking you to "voluntarily" do something, it's just a veiled threat.
Wow. You must be a real treat at dinner.
"Please pass the salt...or else."
either the queen has power, or not. if she has no power, then the dutch system has all the same positive and negative attributes as germany, usa, france... PLUS you have an expensive, pointless figurehead. what i don't understand is what you think that expensive, pointless figurehead adds to the governmental mix to make it somehow superior to a system without the expensive, pointless figurehead
in other words, to me, you seem to see value in what essentially has no value
either the queen has power, or not. if she has no power, what's the point of having a monarchy?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm surprised you weren't modded troll for comparing Taiwan to Obama's Internet Kill Switch
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Why do I hear a Chuck Norris joke in there somewhere?
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Yes there is. Its a small sub-section of the greater Krung Thep metropolis.
'Bang' means village, and 'Krung' means city.
I occasionally browse the Thai language websites. I can verify that the pro-government/PAD/multi-color shirts strongly promote violence.
I sometimes feel like I'm reading KKK neo-Nazi forums . . . wishing for every act of gratuitous violence to be applied to the red-shirt protesters . . .
Just great, now we are going to see an article on Slashdot about how "Programmers don't know Cities"!
where they have a monarch and the military has staged a number of coups regardless?
your words do match reality, friend
i think nepal has the best idea:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/world/asia/03nepal.html
monarchies are simply expensive useless national follies. like a favorite national breed of lap dog or a famous national landmark. except, unlike a landmark or a pet, the maintenance costs for a monarchy are rather high. prohibitively high, in my view
but if the dutch want to keep footing a bill for an expensive useless national pasttime, who am i to judge? tulips, dikes, windmills, wooden clogs... and some old ditzy broad in a castle. whatever. ridiculous
just don't make believe a monarchy in today's day and age affords the "protections" you listed above. it simply doesn't. it doesn't play out the way you imagine
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
That's the just the ringing in your ears from the sonic boom that was created when you were standing within audible distance of a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
sigs... don't talk to me about sigs....
I meant when they use the word "voluntary". Not "please do this", but "We are asking you to voluntarily do such-and-such."
I got the (perhaps mistaken) impression that Isaac Asimov modeled the planet Sayshell after Thailand in Foundation's Edge.
Free Martian Whores!
I think the parent is referring to (from memory, forgive me if incorrect...) "El pueblo de la nuestra senora reina de Los Angeles de la porciuncula", which is allegedly the original name of the village.
-- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
You speak and it is so. I guess there's some fundamental difference between the US and Taiwan that makes it ok for the US to threaten to shut down the whole internter (heh) and bad for Taiwan to shut down a tiny fraction of it.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I got the (perhaps mistaken) impression that Isaac Asimov modeled the planet Sayshell after Thailand in Foundation's Edge.
I always figured that Asimov modeled Sayshell after the Seychelles (the island nation, north of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean). The quasi-French/Dutch place- and people-names used by Asimov would seem to reinforce this notion.
That's more likely, as the Saychellian also reminded me of Indians. I wonder if the people in the Seychelles have ridiculously long names like the Sayshellians?
Free Martian Whores!