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Thai Gov't Welcomes Twitter's Censorship Plans

Posted by timothy on from the man-vs.-king dept.

patiwat writes "The Thai government has called Twitter's tweet censorship move a 'welcome development.' Tweets may now be blocked at the request of the Thai government; the system will be used to discourage and punish lese majeste (criticism of the Thai King). The government previously declared that Facebook users worldwide 'liking' a lese majeste Facebook link would also be prosecuted; over 10,000 Facebook pages have been removed and hundreds of individuals, including children and academics, have been jailed. Calls to reform the lese majeste laws have been fiercely criticized by no less than the Army Commander, whose backing is critical to the government's stability."

7 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Moron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone who needs laws to prevent criticism of themselves obviously has a problem, and banning the criticism is sticking their head in the sand.

    1. Re:Moron by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not exactly the situation.
      The law is simply a stick for the military government with which to beat citizens with. It's the same with all these thought-crime type laws, and the king may or may not even care.

  2. Authoritarians welcome censorship by countertrolling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    *GASP* No way!

    --
    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
  3. Twitter by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Spinless bastards for even building this functionality.
    The correct response is "HTTPS everywhere; suck it up despots".

  4. What does it say by Reverand+Dave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That all of these technological marvels were initially used as a means to communicate during times of unrest and now they themselves are becoming instruments and willing participants in the suppression of insurrection and communication that has not been sanitized. This is the type of behavior that I expect from the likes of GE, Novatris, and ADM, but when supposed open web companies like Twitter start actively colluding with oppressive regimes it does not bode well for humanity as a species.

    --
    I got here through a series of tubes
  5. Re:Fuck the king by SteveFoerster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That, or maybe some moderators are repelled by racism.

    --
    Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
  6. Re:Travel Alert... by Asic+Eng · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is why real name policies are evil. Some people seem to believe they increase civility (though Usenet had a real name policy from the start, and it never had that effect), but even if that were true it would not compensate for the loss of freedom. Sure theoretically we could use other services, but social networks only work as long as they are popular, so for practical purposes we are stuck with just a few options.