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Thai Police: We'll Get You For Online Social Media Criticism
wired_parrot (768394) writes 'After a leading protester of the recent military coup in Thailand made several critical posts in Facebook criticizing the military takeover, Thailand's Technology Crime Suppression Division tracked his location through his IP address and promptly arrested him.. The arrested was meant to send a message to Thailand's online community. Said the police: "I want to tell any offenders on social media that police will come get you."'
Thailand is one of the few countries which still has Lèse-majesté laws, too.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
I think he was tricked to visiting some site, more likely - and wasn't really trying to hide the ip. or it's a plant pr job.
Anyhow, a while ago, the junta blocked Facebook for the whole country for a while apparently because they had no idea how the internet works and had ordered some "Facebook pages" to be blocked(and later their pr making some comment about wanting to make better filtering for their main internet connection, I can only guess that they want the same kind of MITM capability that nsa is running, I have zero faith in them actually accomplishing that as it's anyones guess if even the friggin isp's in Thai know where their traffic is routed out of the country and how. You can buy residential fiber in many areas in Thailand but you might just as well buy cable due to their fucked up routing).
At least they got scandily clad women in military style clothers singing songs in Bangkok.
Running VPN's to outside Thailand is pretty common too - and if you're wondering why they aren't blocking Twitter, Facebook and Line(it's a whatsup clone that everyone uses) the reason is two pronged: it would get them too much flack and frankly the leader of the Junta doesn't care too much since he's pretty.. how to say.. old ways guy, stuck in old media - but on the other hand if he would block them then his political career would be over due to the uproar(he has a political career now and was about to get age based forced retirement from military later this year).
The reason why the coup hasn't had much effect in about anything except 10-20% drop in tourism is quite simple: the Thais had not been getting anything done in the last year anyways due to unwillingness of police and military to get involved in politics the proper way - they didn't secure the voting, they didn't arrest people who had insurrection charges and were openly plotting overthrowing of the elected government through unconstitutional means(and were charged even - and the cops knew exactly where they were and when).
sue they just went form a paralyzed government(which might have not been doing anything even without extra interference because hey, they're Thais) to a overburdened military ran government with a leader with aspirations to run for next PM himself, he better because technically he needs amnesty after this debacle, but like always he might not even bother with that since if the old Elite ways are kept he wont get charged even if he drives drunk over a cop - and status like that is what the old thais are afraid of losing and that's why they backed the demonstrators with loads of raw cash (when they claim they love the King, what they really love is acting like being royalty in medieval times).
In order to actually talk to a website, you leave enough information behind to be found, especially with Tor infiltration.
You simply aren't as clever as you think you are, even if you don't realize how easy it is to figure out who you are.
Which is why it is vital that we not magnanimously accept its warrant-less use against us by our governors.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
But was it really forbidden to critizise the ruling class in A Brave New World? Wasn't it just that no-one did, because constant fun-and-sport-and-sexytimes made every-one both content and shallow as puddles. (Except the protagonist.) I think you want 1984.
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.
I often find people don't seem to understand when talking about countries like Pakistan or Egypt that the military, police and intelligence services aren't just bureaucracies within the government. They are institutions that have a life of their own, a life that is parallel to the civilian government. And when push comes to shove, the nominal subservience of the security services to civilian authority goes out the window.
And here in the US, people are already crossing the line from respecting and honoring the men and women who serve this country in uniform to revering the military as an institution, and that we should never do.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Telling people that you'll come arrest them when they speak out against you is admitting that you're not acting in the best interest of the people. Hence people will be less likely to support you in the long run than if you just allow and *gasp* maybe even listen to criticism.
These people act more like playground bullies than adults governing a nation. It's pretty sad and despicable. Imagine if they just came out and said "You may say whatever you like about us; tell us how you really feel. No harm will ever befall you for stating your opinion." The good will that would generate would be FAR more effective than arresting those who disagree with you!