Thailand Crisis

A very nice Lunacy Of the Day. Consider this :

Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Man Pattanotai yesterday handed over a list of illegal websites including pornographic sites, sites violating copyright laws, gambling sites and sites endangering national security totaling 100 sites to Deputy Commander of the Central Investigative Division of the Police, Police Major General Panya Marmen (ปัญญา มาเม่น) for processing.

Police Major General Panya stated that police would pursue transgressors, including issuing warrants for any site operators located abroad.

Police will also continue cooperating with the ICT to shut down websites in violation of laws after working with the ICT’s various database departments to apprehend a multitude of malicious websites. Authorities revealed that they have been able to process 90% of cases begun in the past year. (PRD)

It’s coming from the propagandstaffel of the government (Public Relation Departement).

It’s difficult to understand, it’s badly written, it’s certainly not reliable, but it’s definitely and highly entertaining.

And its shows the mindset of those people… Scary.

Arrest illegal website operators, even abroad, “processing…“…

You were thinking that a court decision was necessary to block a website, to declare a website “illegal“… apparently the bozos at ICT Ministry and in the police don’t care. At all.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobumrung has ordered governors in all provinces to prosecute local cable TV networks that broadcasts ASTV’s signal.

The interior minister says ASTV’s presentation of the rally is against the law as the protest is illegal in its obstruction of traffic.

The interior minister claims that under article 85, local cable TV companies that broadcast live footage of the rally could, therefore, receive up to six months prison penalty.

He says the People’s Alliance for Democracy rally at Makawan Bridge is violating articles 215 and article 216 as it is interrupting the nation’s peace. (TOC)

Chalerm says he knows who killed 3 people and wounded 38 during the New Year bombings… he likes to hunt “wrong” websites too… his youngest son was charged for the murder of a… police officer in a nightclub (he fled to Malaysia… but then was acquitted)… ! … This man, ladies and gentleman, is the current Interior Minister of Thailand…

He’s probably more dangerous and lunatic than the Prime Minister Samak…

“interrupting the nation’s peace“… “ASTV’s presentation of the rally is against the law as the protest is illegal in its obstruction of traffic“… It’s hilarious !

You understand that with such low level ministers… the country can’t go forward.

We left this unfolding great Saga “How to kill the thai Internet industry”… here…

A poor thai bloke, managing a free hosting website, was arrested. His crime ? Another man sent a picture -naked ! shocking- of his ex girlffriend on the website…

Now it’s time for the part 2.

Police have arrested a webmaster for posting pornographic photos for trade and distribution on his website, one of 200-300 sites containing sexually explicit content based in Thailand.

Boonyarit Arunsap, 25, the webmaster of www.nisitgirl.com, was apprehended on Tuesday on the 13th floor of the CAT Telecom building on Charoen Krung road in Bang Rak district.

Police from the Children, Juveniles and Women division and Information and Communications Technology Ministry officials allegedly found him using his computer to download and share lewd content via Bit Torrent, a file-sharing programme.

Police charged him with allowing sexually obscene content into a computer system under his supervision for public access with the purpose of trading or sharing pornographic photos.

The offence under the Computer Crime Act is punishable by up to five years in jail and a 100,000 baht fine.

Police seized seven computers from his office and 14 more from an office on the 14th floor for examination.

According to police, Mr Boonyarit said his website was intended for the public to exchange their views. But at least 10 porn websites had used his site to post sexually-explicit photos, messages or links to other obscene sites, police said. (Bangkok Post)

It’s just another example of what the authorities can do with the infamous Computer Crime Law. The guy was running a public website… other people use it to share porn… And voila !

This law is a monstrosity.

It was designed by the Junta. And now, it’s used by a civilian government, democratically elected, blablabla.

Political sides that seems in conflict are perfectly on the same line for some matters…

Anyway, the message is clear and loud : you’re thai ? You have an Internet business located in Thailand ? Get the hell out of there.

[by the way, thanks to Bangkok Pundit : I've learned a new expression... "streisand effect" ]

Lenine called these people “useful idiots”.

Bangkok Pundit has an article about it.

Something is missing however : the thai cop filled also a complaint against a BBC correspondent for… lese-majeste (read my article) !

With his interview to Bangkok Post, he looks like a little child, helped by his big brother, Mr Khan, “a former English teacher for police at the Special Branch Police and the Crime Suppression Division“.

The 42-year-old British citizen later translated the speech into Thai and submitted the paper to many police, but none were prepared to file a complaint against Mr Jakrapob.

“Mr Jakrapob is a Thai national. He should not have made such a remark, which I find really disgusting,” said Mr Khan, who works as a freelance translator and reporter.“

Indeed : useful idiot.

What a thai drama !

Last point : reporter… british… complaint against the BBC… Could it be a matter of jealousy ?

Here we go again… Since a few weeks, Internet users in Thailand complain a lot : they experience several problems to access YouTube, to watch some videos etc.

It’s so big that the forum ThaiVisa has created a pinned topic ! There are obviously many issues… interlinked (ban on the Thai side, technical problems to implement the ban system, ban on YouTube side with a filter system etc.).

So let’s summarize.

APRIL 2007
The Junta bans the access to YouTube. The whole website. Reason ? A few videos offensive to the King. I saw those videos… they were obviously made by a teenager and were more “stupid” than political. Anyway. Uproar everywhere. But the thai authorities do not care. At all. The IT Minister is a clown (read here), and doesn’t care neither.

AUGUST 2007
After negociations, the ban is officially lifted. Not too fast. YouTube has agreed to create a filter system.

Depending on the location of the IP address of viewers, YouTube can ban some videos (and displaying a message “This video is not longer available”.) I’m the first to talk about this filter system (read here).

The people seem to forget. The controversy dies.

APRIL 2008
Meanwhile, some new YouTube posters (thais and probably located in Thailand) have sent very, extremely offensive videos for the thai monarchy, and highly political.

http://uk.youtube.com/profile?user=15yearsprison

YouTube is slow to react. But eventually suspends the account. The individual wants apparently to increase his exposure and to avoid YouTube filter system. Therefore, he creates… a blog ! To keep the videos alive and to comment on them.

http://www.15yearsprison.blogspot.com

MAY 2008
First official alert. 15yearsprison is on the list of 29 websites accused of lese-majeste by the Democrat Party. The individual creates then a new account http://uk.youtube.com/user/StopLeseMajeste

And he continues to post highly charged videos… [UPDATE : the last URL is now banned, on the thai side, by some thai ISP]

JUNE 2008
The videos are banned with a new filter system. The message is now “This video has been removed due to term of use violation” (if you are connected from Thailand). But are still available from outside the country.

I repeat the videos are extremely offensive, but also (and that’s the big difference with april 2007 with the first “idiotic” videos) political.

The guy is clearly on a crusade against the thai monarchy and the whole thai political system.

And it’s much more difficult to deal with (as far as western internet companies are concerned).

I start to believe that the aim of 15yearsprison alias Stoplesemajeste is to provoke the thai authorities.

My point : his blog could be to banned. And if Blogger.com doesn’t have a filter system like YouTube, I think Bangkok wouldn’t hesitate to ban the… whole website.

So we can see the beginning of a problem there…

Can you imagine, if this little war continues… and if the individual creates a blog on WordPress for instance and then on all the other blog systems available in the world ? Or if other people start to duplicate his videos ?

On the other hand, the thai authorities can’t back off. It would be way too dangerous.

A very, very strange piece, published in Bangkok Post.

Thailand’s Internet is stuttering with a series of unexplained outages and slowdowns that suggest that the government is running a far-reaching programme to monitor its citizens’ online activities, one similar to the US Carnivore email policeware programme.

This can be seen in the way YouTube is now all but unusable for TOT subscribers, and how sending large email messages through a foreign server on port 25 often fails, while encrypted, non-standard ports or VPN access over the same network works fine.

A former security-consultant-turned-businessman in Thailand, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the entire situation was seriously damaging business confidence and may be on the verge of being illegal, especially for foreign businesses operating in Thailand. (Bangkok Post)

I don’t want to go with conspiracy theories… but from my small point of view, on the ground, I can only say that the Internet is not reliable. I use 2 ADSL lines, work and private, with 2 different operators… And there is no constancy. At all. Since a few weeks, it’s hell, particularily for web traffic.

Same for e-mail (delays).

No explanations given, excepted the classic “TIT” (This Is Thailand). If you do a few traceroutes, you can see that the traffic goes through “proxies”… proxies or monitoring systems ?

Are the operators totally clueless and definitely incompetent ? Or do they have to work on government orders ? It’s a mystery.

We can also say that the thai authorities do not care at all about laws and privacy, funny -but bothering- western concepts.

Anyway, thanks to the Junta last year, they enjoy a totally insane law (Computer Crime Act, read here). Basically, they can do whatever they want.

They didnt’t hesitate to ban YouTube, to close access to other websites, etc. Even without any court orders… Just the “fait du prince”. The IT minister (who is usually a perfect jerk) takes his telephone, and pressurizes internet operators, websites publishers etc.

Now they don’t care anymore to give proper justification, like for instance “fight against pornography” (an all-time classic)… They understood that it’s better to let the people talk, and do the dirty work behind, quietly.

This offensive against Internet started with Thaksin actually.

Backfired ! Seriously backfired.

The stupid thai police officer who filed a complaint for lese-majeste against a BBC journalist… has managed to bring in full broad light the insanity of the current situation in Thailand.

Congratulations ! His superiors are going probably to award him a medal… and send him to the deep South…

This fanatic -it’s not the first time he filed lese-majeste complaints- has seriously damaged the image of Thailand.

I mean to attack the BBC is just too… big for him. And what’s next ? The british Prime Minister ? Or a complaint for lese-majeste against the Queen of England (because BBC = England… therefore….) ? !

It’s a shame, a disgrace. But this story has one huge advantage : it shows how totally whicked the situation is in Thailand.

The BBC has rejected police allegations in Thailand that one of its correspondents insulted revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a charge that can result in up to 15 years in jail.

The lese majeste complaint, filed by a police lieutenant-colonel, alleges that the British broadcaster’s South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head “intentionally criticized the monarchy several times”.

It also says that Head, a British journalist with more than 12 years experience in southeast Asia, was part of an anti-monarchy “conspiracy” involving Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecoms billionaire who was ousted as Prime Minister in a 2006 coup.

Prior to the coup, Thaksin was regularly accused of having insufficient respect for the King, who is regarded as semi-divine by many of Thailand’s 65 million people.

“The allegations made against Jonathan Head are completely unfounded,” BBC Asia Bureau Editor Paul Danahar said in a statement.

“The BBC understands that the police in Thailand are required to investigate all complaints of lese majeste, and will co-operate with that investigation,” he said.

“But it is very upsetting that his work should be incorrectly presented in this way and it has caused great distress to both him and his family.”

The May 30 complaint, filed by Police Lieutenant-Colonel Watanasak Mungkijakandee, says that Head’s reporting from 2006 to 2008 “damaged and insulted the reputation of the monarchy”.

One of his specific complaints relates to the placing of a picture of Thaksin above a picture of the King on the BBC website news.bbc.co.uk, in contravention of a Thai convention that images of the monarch must always be at the top. (Reuters)

Here is the latest episode of the “29 websites accused of lese-majeste” Saga (for the previous stories… click here).

WEDNESDAY MAY 28
Report of Matichon (thai newspaper, translation provided by Bangkok Pundit)

Mr. Man [IT Minister] stated that on the policy of closing websites for lese majeste there has been an order from “high above” that there should not be any banning of any websites and information should be distributed in an open and free manner because foreigners don’t understand the closing of websites in Thailand and might look at it negatively.

TUESDAY MAY 27
Meeting of the cabinet.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung threatened legal action against the operators of websites posting information that challenges the monarchy. Mr Chalerm presented the cabinet with a report on his inquiry into inappropriate websites.

This followed a complaint by the opposition Democrat party about the websites a few weeks ago.

Mr Chalerm said his ministry had worked closely with police to inspect the sites and found that 29 websites currently posted improper information. The sites would be shut down or blocked shortly.

He said 22 were based in Thailand while the others were overseas-based.

He said so far he has tracked down the webmasters of 27 sites and had talks with them to make them understand that releasing such inappropriate information via their websites was a legal offence, regardless of its origin.

Violators would be charged with conspiracy and punished under security-related laws, he said

So… as you can see, it’s a real flying circus. No consistency. At all.

Let’s explore some hypothesis :
-the thai newspaper is totally lunatic, and have badly distorted the Minister’s words.

-the IT Minister is totally lunatic, and changes his mind on a daily basis (depending on the weather)

-the IT Minister is not lunatic : he just changes his statements, depending on who he’s speaking to !
To the cabinet, it’s good to say that “conspiracy”, “actions needed”, “lese-majeste… horrible” blablabla. And to the thai public, it’s better to say “no problem, everything will be fine, a very important person told me no to ban those websites” blablabla…

If you see other solutions, let me know.

Bangkok Pundit has an astonishing piece about an interview given by the new IT Minister to a thai radio, after some websites were banned.

Scary stuff.

Here are some quotes, but you should read the whole article.

Bottom line : the thai authorities spent a lot of time to design special “security laws” that give them huge power. But actually, it’s for the show. They don’t respect the laws. They just “cite” them in order to obtain immediate and full “cooperation” from thai websites …

For instance, to ban a website the government must seek an authorization from a judge… That seems fair. But actually this story is good for the stupid foreigners. Good for the show.

A real thai politician has another -and efficient- method : he just takes his phone, to threaten people with legal action.

By the way, the interview is riddled with errors and blatant lies.

Even if you take in account some translation issues, again, what the Minister dares to say in public is really scary and show the poor, very poor level of the people currently in control (to be fair, it was exactly the same with the Junta).

China, Burma, Thailand… and actually most of asian countries : they don’t give a rat shit about freedom of expression and other evil western ideas.

All those gentlemen (in uniform or not), with different cultures and languages, share exactly the same brain pattern : “you are free to think… like me” along with what I call the “fuckyoupolicy”. You dare to disagree ? “Fuck you” is their common answer.

With a smile of course…

We blocked both messages and images. In fact, we have been doing this for a week. In most cases, it is difficult since the webhosting service providers are located outside the country.[...]

During the APEC ministerial meeting in Bangkok, I talked with their Minister, and then Mr. David Cross, a diplomat from Washington. They knew the administration of Google and understood Thai culture. They knew well how we felt. After that contact, the content disappeared.[...]

No, no longer on either Google or YouTube, I mean they are not available in Thailand. But of course, they cannot deny the access to the content worldwide.[...]

There are more than 200 internet service providers in Thailand, and we, and CAT know them all. So if they are in Thailand, we can deal with them because we have the law. I have to thank Khun Patchara and Khun Wisuth for reading out the penalty, they deserve it if they are not loyal.[...]

Yes, I just ordered them closed. Of course, we understand that it is inappropriate to use the term, and it would be more pleasing to say we asked for cooperation. But they know what “asking for cooperation” means.[...]

We just cited the criminal laws to ban them.

They have content about the monarchy. Thai people cannot bear this, and no one can. Not just me or my officers. Even the former ICT Minister, Sitthichai Pokaiyaudom, once he was informed about this, he asked me to ban them. And he would encourage folk who have the knowledge to hack the websites. Everyone is helping us. Even operators of internet services who have the knowledge in hacking also help us. [...]

Police arrested the owner of a free picture-hosting website after police traced pictures of a woman having sex with her ex-boyfriend to the site.

Siriporn Suwanpithak, 26, was arrested at his company in Pathum Thani.

He said he did not know that his site, www.212cafe.com was used to host the pictures of the woman.

The woman has filed complaints with police that her ex-boyfriend distributed her pictures taken while having sex with him on Internet.

The ex-boyfriend has been earlier arrested.

Police traced the sources of the pictures and found that they were hosted on Siriporn’s free-service site. (Nation)

Congratulations to the thai authorities. To arrest someone, as the owner of a hosting company, because some pictures -with no link with the owner- were hosted on the website… is simply astonishing.

I mean, if it was a least a political story (like the 29 websites accused of lese-majeste)… but here it’s just a ridiculous case.

And it will without any doubt send a clear sign to the thai internet industry : GET OUT ! Leave the country.

Potentially, all the thai public websites, located in Thailand, are threatened. Just upload a naughty picture… then complain to the police… Et voila.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung on Thursday vowed to issue an arrest warrant against a mastermind behind Internet messages deemed offensive to the monarchy.

“In no more 72 hours I should have the outcome of tracing who is behind the posting of inappropriate messages in the Internet,” he said.

Chalerm reminded webmasters and service providers to comply with the law or risk facing a crackdown. He said offensive messages posted from abroad would be under the jurisdiction of Thai law because they were circulated in the country. (Nation)

Chalerm is a good hunting dog. He goes where his masters tell him to go. And he loves to move his tail.

The whole story is becoming a farce (read here for the list of targeted websites).

So see you in 72 hours… and we’ll be able -at last- to see the face of the beast, the monster.