Facebook/Twitter Banned In Thailand For Election

societyofrobots writes "In the run up to the July 3rd election in Thailand, use of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are banned for campaigning and other election related purposes. Offenders face a maximum six months in prison and a 10,000 baht ($330) fine. The ban includes sending short telephone texts and forwarding emails. 'There will be a unit of more than 100 officers to monitor this,' said police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri of the social media ban. 'If we can track the origin of (an online message) right away, we will block the site and make an arrest. But if the sites are registered overseas and we can't check the origin, we'll first block it and ask the IP (Internet Protocol) providers for further investigation,' Prawut said."

Comments

Only banned during last hours before polls

[cgeys]

They did not ban the use of Twitter, Facebook and social media for election related purposes. This ban is only effect from yesterday 6 PM to today 3 PM until the polls are over. It's a cooling period before the polls, which by the way have already opened. It's so that the candidates and parties or their supporters won't do any cheating or try last minute mass campaigning. Hell, the headline made it sound like some China thing where they banned Facebook and Twitter completely. And I should know, as I live here, have a thai wife and many thai friends.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Anonymous Coward]

It is still censorship and a pretty stupid thing to censor at that.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Anonymous Coward]

Same in Canada, although in our case it's so that results on the east coast aren't transmitted to the west coast, where they're still voting, until AFTER the election is actually over.

While I don't like it all that much, it's really not that onerous.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Anonymous Coward]

That's up for us to decide. Just like a little air conditioning is ok, or a little dessert, or a little alcohol.

Believe it or not, humans don't live in a world of absolutes, there are things that are acceptable in moderation.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[shutdown -p now]

So, since it's only a little bit of government censorship, it's OK?

Well, yes. More generally, it's a little bit of censorship that is very limited both in time and in scope, and which has a well-defined goal that the society considers important (fair elections).

Considering that, as far as censorship goes, this is far less significant than, say, criminalizing "incitement to riot", Americans should be familiar with the overall idea.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[captain_sweatpants]

I don't really see how censoring politicians could ever be a bad thing? Most of the time when politicians speak I get an overwhelming urge to punch them in the face until they shut up! (Senator Conroy I'm looking at you!)

Seriously though I think this measure was designed by the relatively less corrupt current government to prevent the significantly corrupt former government from using it's ill gotten billions to buy it's way back into office by sending out propaganda to the poorly educated rural population.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in .au it's exactly the same. In the last week (might be days?) before an election the parties are no longer allowed to advertise or campaign. Censoring a political party I see no issue with, as long as all parties are under the same restrictions.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Martin Blank]

A lot of news organizations do exit polling, which until recent years has often been remarkably accurate. In the last couple of presidential elections, the accuracy has dropped a bit because fewer people are willing to respond to the exit pollers or they are deliberately giving wrong answers.

Media organizations are often requested by the government to hold onto exit polls for individual states until polls close, something they usually do. The major news organizations screwed up in 2000 when they apparently forgot that Florida is in two time zones and started calling the election for Gore before the panhandle polls closed an hour later. The panhandle is (or at least was) a more Republican area and the whole fight over who won the state might have been avoided depending on the actual turnout and how they voted. They've been more careful since then.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[MacTO]

It would constitute censorship under very limited circumstances. It would constitute censorship if new information was discovered in the final hours of the election, and it was prevented from inadvertently reaching the voter due to the blackout.

But the reality is that new information rarely pops up in those final hours. Because of that, most of the campaigning done would have more to do with manipulating the political process (e.g. presenting misinformation that the other parties cannot respond to). That sort of situation is far more dangerous to democracy than something that a few people could interpret as censorship because they see the world in black-and-white terms.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Noughmad]

The law is to prevent candidates from claiming their opponent is a pedofile just as the voting starts, as in this case the opponent would have no time to respond to such allegations even if they can be easily proven false.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[X.25]

It is still censorship and a pretty stupid thing to censor at that.

In many countries election related 'advertising' (or campaigning) is prohibited for 24 hours before election starts.

No, it's not censorship.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[Zironic]

All campaigning for the last 24 hours -is- banned you ignorant twit.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[smittyoneeach]

Better still would be to enforce the ban socially.
If everyone agrees that spreading scurrilous rumors prior to a vote is self-outing as the loser, then there is a negative feedback loop, to minimize the behavior.
Governments run open loop; law begets law begets law. Society arrives at results opposite to the original intent. All lose.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[cgeys]

If everyone agrees...

Yeah good luck with that.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[DrXym]

How does one "cheat" elections using Twitter or Facebook? Could you elaborate?

Easily. Just tweet that your opponent came in to vote reeking of drink or was charged with touching a minor or some other slur. Lots of countries put specific regulation around an election to stop this kind of shit and remedies for when it does happen.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[cgeys]

Yes, it really is common in other countries too. And for a good reason. It just has been in traditional media before, because technology like internet haven't existed for long, social media even less. Other countries will most likely include social media in the, well, media category too.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[skegg]

I don't really see how censoring politicians could ever be a bad thing ... Senator Conroy I'm looking at you!

In Soviet Australia, Senator Conroy censors you !

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[metalmaster]

While I do agree with you, sadly this IS the state of things for many people in the US. Ad campaigns, while not being outright smear campaigns, go a long way to subtlly discredit the other person's character. If there is an ad centered around a political issue both parties give their input. However, if you listen closely enough its sometimes the same answer phrased differently.

Case and point: Fill in the blank ads
"$candidate_foo claims to do things "for the people" but did you know that he voted for $bill that led to $hardship in this great state? He has also done x, y and z that didnt help either. Im different. Vote for me! This campaign ad was paid for with the blood of your first born

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[BasilBrush]

List any that are not a running joke when it comes to credibility of their vote counting process.

The UK.

What logical reason?

Because it's better to let the electorate have a free period to make up their mind on all the information they've received through the campaign period, rather than to have them voting based on an emotive last minute smear or dirty trick.

If the last minute smear or dirty trick comes just before the campaigning deadline, then the media still have time to fact check the claim, and report it. Factual reporting is not campaigning, and thus isn't subject to the election period campaigning ban.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[jklovanc]

All last minute campaigning is illegal. Here is the relevant section from Thailand's Electoral law http://www.elections-lebanon.org/elections/docs_6_G_8_1_14.aspx [elections-lebanon.org]
"Section 48. No person shall make an election campaign by any means, whether it may be favorable or disfavorable to any candidate or political party, from 6:00 pm of the day before the election day to the end of the election day."

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[jklovanc]

How about Australia
Under Schedule 2 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, which is administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), election advertising in the electronic media is subject to a 'blackout' from midnight on the Wednesday before polling day to the end of polling on the Saturday. This three-day blackout effectively provides a "cooling off" period in the lead up to polling day, during which political parties, candidates and others are no longer able to purchase time on television and radio to broadcast political advertising.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[outsider007]

First of all, bullshit. Second of all, freedom of speech is necessary for a democracy whether the people want it or not.

Re:Only banned during last hours before polls

[drinkypoo]

That law exists because Thai people want it to exist.

No, you only believe that to be true because the law essentially prohibits reporting on the opposite. Saying that it takes a law to prevent badmouthing the king is badmouthing the king and thus illegal, so they legally can't say it in the media.

Most Thai people really do love their king.

[citation needed] — there's no particular reason to believe that people aren't worried about being turned in for not loving their king.

outrageous!

[B3ryllium]

that is outrageous! this would never happen in a civilized country ... like Canada.

oh wait.

I can see exactly why things like this are done.

[rainmouse]

In the Scottish election in 2007, the nationals party were set in the polls for a landslide victory and on the morning the polls opened, virtually every national newspaper in Scotland had an enormous full-front page spread containing much misleading information. This enormously expensive smear campaign had a huge effect and though the nationals still crept into power, it was only by a narrow margin leaving them largely toothless for four years.

Here's an interesting article on cooling off periods for those who like the original poster, seem to think they are undemocratic or some form of censorships like the original poster seems to. http://kelvinteowrites.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/why-the-reason-behind-cooling-off-period-may-throw-past-elections-results-into-disrepute/

Re

[mjwx]

if this were true wouldn't all campaigning for the last 24 hours be banned instead of "hurr lets block facebook/twitter"? Sounds pretty specious to me.

They do,

This is to try to prevent vote buying before the election, not that it works, 100 to 500 Baht (US$3.50 to US$16 approx) is all it takes for a lot of Thailands poor to be convinced to vote one way or another.

The bigger issue that everyone on /. is overlooking is the real potential for violence during the election.

we do the same thing in Australia

[benengel]

see here http://www.aec.gov.au/FAQs/election_advertising.htm#blackout

"This three-day blackout effectively provides a "cooling off" period in the lead up to polling day, during which political parties, candidates and others are no longer able to purchase time on television and radio to broadcast political advertising"

This entire story and headline is slanted to portray what the thais are doing as chinese style censorship when it is nothing of the sort. Many western countries including australia do the exact same thing

Its the rules, not censorship

[tanveer1979]

Political parties are not allows to campaign on the last day preceding the elections in many countries. They have just extended the ban to online mediums.

Re:not censorship at all

[nazg00l]

Nice try. It is not a question of being adults or not, but rather of human beings in general being susceptible to certain psychological tricks. Like the government of the moment launching a massive FUD campaign in public media just before voting commences. Or the same government publishing fabricated polls during the election itself with the aim of swaying undecided people. How would you have them handle the issue afterwards? "Ooops, sorry 'bout that"?

I don't believe telling all interested parties to shut up for a day or two and think the matter - arguably the most important matter for the country - through is not censorship. Furthermore, I believe much of the world agrees, judging by rules of this sort being in place in multiple countries of very diverse backgrounds.

Contrary to what I have heard sometimes, absolute and unrestricted freedom to say anything without any consequences is not the optimum state. Think crying "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. Think libel. And how exactly do you impose consequences after elections won by last-minute false mud-throwing campaign? "Oops, sorry"?