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Thailand Passes Internet Security Law Decried as 'Cyber Martial Law' (reuters.com)
Thailand's military-appointed parliament on Thursday passed a controversial cybersecurity law that gives sweeping powers to state cyber agencies, despite concerns from businesses and activists over judicial oversight and potential abuse of power. From a report: The Cybersecurity Act, approved unanimously, is the latest in a wave of new laws in Asian countries that assert government control over the internet. Civil liberties advocates, internet companies and business groups have protested the legislation, saying it would sacrifice privacy and the rule of law, and warning compliance burdens could drive foreign businesses out of Thailand. The military government has pushed for several laws it said would support the country's digital economy, including an amendment to the Computer Crime Act in 2017, which has been used to crack down on dissent.
"concerns from businesses and activists over judicial oversight and potential abuse of power"
Why don't you guys worry first about the fact that you're a military dictatorship and then you maybe won't have to worry about things like freedom.
First stop for kiddie sex. Ask Garry Glitter, Pete Townshend, and Elon Musk.
The internet is lost.
Not because of this: this is one tiny country without much weight to throw around. No, the internet is lost because of how much other countries with a lot of weight to throw around, are throwing it around.
We used to have an internet that put power in the hands of people. That is suffering the death of a thousand cuts. The increasing top-down control is sometimes sold as "for our own good", or "for the children", or "to keep you safe". Sometimes it's political control, as in China. Sometimes it's nanny-state control, as in the US and Europe. Sometimes it's commercial control, as in intrusive DRM. Sometimes it's ad-agency control, as in the mountains of cross-site javascript most sites won't work without anymore. Sometimes it's "fear of bad PR" control, as in social media companies wrestling our collective commons away. Sometimes it's a war on encryption.
Whatever, it's all another brick in the wall. The internet is lost: there is no stopping this slide. We had to not let it start!
We need to start over now. Tunnel something new, E2E encrypted, censorship resistant. And the ONLY hope for that new thing, is to change its culture: so that people say "no" to authoritarians, rather than bending the knee.
Can that happen? Doubt it. But if we don't, we have lost this amazing tool of human communication for good. We let the genie get put back into the bottle.
If you want to convince your "citizens" that they are fine, just censor the Internet. Seems to work fine for North Korea and China.
That being said, censorship of the Internet should be treated as a crime.
Although I know a few people that go there periodically like florida snowbirds because of the insanely low cost of living (you can go there with a small stash of american dollars and live the high life for a year pretty easily), it's a military dictatorship with a king that legally can throw you in jail for 15 years for looking at him wrong. Despite having some "good reviews", I'd be a bit scared to go there, simply due to the ease at which you can get yourself in serious trouble, and the almost complete lack of options if it happens. So them passing a draconian "internet security" law just seems like they're modernizing their laws to keep up with technology. They've got a noose around everything else, this is just in keeping with the theme - piss off the government, rot in jail. Too much walking on eggshells over there for me thanks.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Does anybody see a global pattern here? The Patriot Act (now Freedom Act) bloomed like it's spring from country to country in the last couple decades. Thanks Osama.
Maybe we never had a chance, but - as techies - we failed to keep the Internet out of the hands of national governments.
Once, some of us had hopes that the scope and reach of the Internet would weaken national governments, especially the totalitarian ones. Instead, even the (theoretically) democratic governments of the West are getting in on the censorship and restriction games.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I fart in king Bhumibol's general direction. His mother was a binturong and his father smelt of durians.
They should put Trump in charge. He knows more about The Cyber than anyone, believe me.
If government (police) can lawfully search people's belongings in the physical world, why it cannot have the same right in virtual world?
Isn't internet full of illegal activity all over the world?
Should we leave all cyber-criminals alone to do whatever they want?
Are the laws of any country/government should/must not apply in the internet?
Most Asian countries are heavily influenced by Confucianism/Han Fei Zi, so this is not surprising. Also not surprising is the general apathy towards heavy-handed governments. Asians are great people, but their governments not so much. Xi Jinping of China is a great admirer of Han Fei Zi, one of China's legalist philosophers. His writings are required reading for most Chinese, particularly the Han. Thailand, North Korea, Singapore, and now even Australia (although a "western" nation) have gone down the road of Internet totalitarianism.
In fact, I left Fastmail as a paying customer (since 2002) over the recent encryption law Australia passed. Power corrupts people. They enjoy the control. They learn they can mold and control your wishes, desires, and outcomes in the really bad examples like China, where their new social credit system can literally leave you jobless, unable to travel, open a bank account, or even marry. Chinese social media outlets now feature one's social credit score alongside their other details. If you're low, no one will touch you for fear of themselves being reduced and the chance of conflation whereby they are likewise blacklisted.
I've spent a little time in Thailand, SE, Central and Eastern Asia, South, Central, North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East.
Before every trip, I check on the photography, OTC drugs, and encryption laws for every country. For the last 5+ yrs, I travel with a chromebook running ubuntu, but it boots into chromeOS by default, without my USB boot media connected. Good for borders
Last trip to Thailand was a few years ago before the King died. There were a few killings on the streets of Bangkok while we were there. Before leaving Bangkok, we spent a few days doing the typical tourist stuff there. Temples, Prams, foods, entertainments ...
As with all big cities, Bangkok has problems with crime, traffic, wide economic gaps among the people. I miss the angry, spicy, lobster chips, still. I can get them for $10 a bag at an international market here, but that's 3x too expensive.
The military was definitely visible, but I never felt threatened by them or police or locals, but we do pay attention to our surroundings when travelling. The only "theft" we experienced was from the bank ATMs charging US$15 in transaction fees.
If I had a choice between taking my family to Thailand and taking them to Barcelona, on a security and amazing trip scale, Thailand wins, by far. Once, in 2 days, in Barcelona, 2 of my friends had 2 cell phones and their wallets stolen. 1 of the thefts was brazen, with lots of yelling happening. We spent the next 5 hrs at the main police station filing reports, not eating Tapas.
Oh ... and the tapas in Bangkok are amazing! There's a restaurant run by a British Ex-patriot near the area of town where you get custom clothes made. We must have each had 20k Baht in food there. We generally eat more upscale when travelling and avoid street food, but these tapas were about TGIF fanciness, as a guide. And watch out for flying ping-pong balls on that street, if you go at night. ;)
While in Thailand, I did find that some of my websites were blocked. The URLs, not the IPs. No idea why, since I don't say much about Thailand and as you can see, I'm pro-Thai for most things. Thai are generally just nice, kind, people, regardless of the movies you've seen. There are exceptions and if you look for trouble, you can certainly find some.
Why is it oppression when it happens elsewhere when its is SOP in the west??