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Volunteer 'Cyber Scouts' Censor Web In Thailand

Posted by timothy on from the everyone-loves-the-king-repeat dept.

societyofrobots writes "Since the military coup of 2006, Thailand's media freedoms have continually been downgraded. A growing tactic among the ruling elite is to accuse the political opposition of insulting the king, allowing for censorship and political imprisonment of those who dare speak out. In 2010, web censorship began to reach the scales of China and Iran. Now, Thailand has formed a group of volunteers called Cyber-Scouts to patrol the web looking for comments deemed to insult the monarchy. AFP also has a video."

15 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. are they? by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One question I have is, are they actually censoring things that do in fact insult the monarchy, or are they using that to suppress other political speech. Either one is bad, but they are whole different levels of bad. Removing things insulting a Monarch is an annoying anachronism but not very harmful... unless it spreads.

    1. Re:are they? by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      That really depends. What if the Monarch is doing something really insulting?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:are they? by x*yy*x · · Score: 4, Informative

      In Thailand everyone has very high respect for the king. Practically every business has his picture on the wall and he is celebrated many times of year. And it's not just made up stuff, the people really do love and respect him. That's why, for example, if you drop a coin you should never stop it with your foot because that would make you stomp on the kings picture and it will be considered really rude by everyone who sees it. With so much respect from all the people, I don't think there is anything the king can do for it to be really insulting. Not that I think he would ever try.

      That being said, the king almost never takes part in any political issue. It's for the government to handle, not the king. That's why neither side, not even the red shirts, will insult the king. He doesn't have any part in it and despite the internal conflicts, everyone loves the king. If someone really is insulting him, it's not for political reasons and hence can't be censoring political speech either.

    3. Re:are they? by cgenman · · Score: 2

      Vajiralongkorn is one heart attack away from the throne. People may love this king (and with reasonably good reason, from what I've seen), but there is no way they're going to worship Vajiralongkorn without a gun pointed at them.

      Unless Sirindhorn somehow gets voted into skipping past Vajiralongkorn, The moment Bhumibol catches a cold Thailand is in deep trouble.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
  2. so do the scouts sing by mjwalshe · · Score: 2

    "tomorrow belongs to me round the campfire" instead of "Kumbayah"

  3. Fuck the monarchy by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Funny

    I fart in king Bhumibol's general direction. His mother was a binturong and his father smelt of durians.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
    1. Re:Fuck the monarchy by Aighearach · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Before we get carried away using it as an excuse to be an a-hole, lets also remember that the King is not the one who complains about the insults, but rather his fervent supporters. He didn't write these laws, he isn't part of the legislative process to approve them, and he is not the one you should hold responsible.

    2. Re:Fuck the monarchy by MoonBuggy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He does hold some responsibility. I don't know the precise details of the situation, but if the supporters are that fervent then I'm sure his making a speech along the lines of "If you wish to defend my honour and my dignity, do so not by repressing people in my name, but by protecting above all else the freedom of every person to speak as they wish, regardless of how abhorrent you may find what they choose to say." would go a very long way towards pointing them in the right direction.

  4. Might as well get this over with. by HungryHobo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bhumibol Adulyadej likes horse cocks.

    there we go.
    now slashdot will be nice and invisible from Thailand.

    1. Re:Might as well get this over with. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bhumibol Adulyadej not only likes the delicacy of horse cock but also spends time with the sheep and goats in one huge farm orgy.

    2. Re:Might as well get this over with. by mpos · · Score: 2

      And if the result of your action is that Slashdot IS indeed made invisible from a whole country, and that 50-60 million people are indeed cut off from a potentially interesting and useful source of technical information and discussion, I'm sure you'll feel insanely proud of yourself.

      For frak sake, why should he be ashamed because other people are against freedom of speech ? You cannot be friend with everybody. Why should I adapt to the least tolerant culture ? Btw, every body know that King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand has elephant-ear and like sucking good hard cock while he fucks a dog and his ass is fucked by a pig.

  5. Re:I don't get it by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Informative

    The King is playing a difficult game. If he too blatantly uses his reserve powers to bash the current leadership, he risks, regardless of how popular he is, undermining the Monarchy itself, which as you point out, is about the only defense the Thai people have against the current regime. As much as people so often decry monarchies in the modern age, they serve the purpose of depriving the government of the day of ultimately executive power, and because the succession is, to a very large degree, beyond political interference, the government has little capacity to get a friendly chief executive.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  6. Re:Tor, darknets, etc. by MoonBuggy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While true, that's hardly the point. Being able to hide from a repressive regime does not justify or negate the actions of that regime.

  7. Re:Protect the children ? by Ironhandx · · Score: 2

    Well, it is, and isn't.

    In Thailand, like many other countries that are not the US(not that you'd know these countries exist) The minimum age for it to be actual child prostitution is 14, not 18. This one fact reduces the 40% of total prostitution being child prostitution on that very slanted wikipedia article down to around 5%. Which given the amount of prostitution plus general illegal activity means it actually is being prosecuted.

    Shit, Canada made it onto the map for "massive child prostituion in British Columbia" a few years ago due to a Wikipedia article. Article stated age of majority was 18, It wasn't. It was 14, in addition, the prostitutes to which it referred were all vast majority over the new statutory age which is 16. I'm personally good with this change. 14 is a little too low to set the bar, but a LOT of fucking people can(and do in the US or so I've heard) get caught with a 16 or 17 year old because they look like freaking 25 or something.

    I have a few friends that would probably be in jail right now, and honestly, if it had been a different night and I hadn't had a girlfriend at the time, to look at the girls, it could have been me.

  8. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Also, he and his family do have a serious personal stake and fortune to protect. In a far-from-rich country, he still manages to be the wealthiest monarch in the world.
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej

    People say Thais love their king, and they do, but the story is more complicated than that. Imagine a society where you must always revere both your elders and your 'superiors', to the extent that you must always Wai them (a kind of bow/greeting) and must never contradict them or speak badly about them. Now elevate that to the ultimate superior in the country who is now also very elderly. (Thais even Wai *photos* of the royals!) Add the Lese Mageste laws, so that you have literally never heard or read even a single bad word about him. (Even not standing up at the beginning if a movie at the theatre when the King's Song is played, which HE wrote by the way, will land you in jail for several years -- unless the king oh so graciously pardons you.) And finally add the fact that he's generally a decent guy, renaissance man, who has done a lot of work to help the poor (but how much effort, really, given that he is still THE WORLD'S RICHEST MONARCH in a country where the poor still had no access to freaking health care without mortgaging their and their family's futures!). That's Thailand.

    The locals don't know (and are legally prohibited from talking about it if they did, thank you Lese Mageste) the fact that his wife, the queen, supported the Yellow Shirt's successful coup to take over from the Red Shirts, who were the choice of the poor and lower classes in a democratic election. The Red Shirts gave the people affordable health care, for one thing. Do you really think Thais would still love their king if some of these details were allowed out in the open to be discussed over the past 60 years...?! I don't think so.