Thursday, September 11, 2014

Thai gov't accused of instituting mass internet surveillance... to see if you're reading anything the king doesn't like...

There's been lots of talk about internet surveillance lately, for obvious reasons. Authoritarian regimes, like China and Iran, have been using it to stifle dissent. Western countries have been using it by claiming that it's to "stop terrorism" (though, the evidence shows that's mostly just a convenient excuse). So, really, it shouldn't be any surprise to see governments embracing internet surveillance for more and more ridiculous ideas. Over in Thailand, we've written about the country's ridiculous "lèse majesté" laws that make it a crime to "insult" the king. This has resulted in some crazy situations in Thailand, including having all of YouTube banned because of a single parody video, an entire chat site shut down because some people said some stuff the king didn't like, and a US citizen threatened with 15 years in jail over merely linking to an unauthorized biography of the king.

So, perhaps it shouldn't be that surprising that a Thai news organization is reporting that the government is now planning on using mass internet surveillance to make sure that no one is even reading anything that the king doesn't like, which would violate those lèse majesté laws.

Thai authorities reportedly planned to implement a surveillance device starting from 15 September to sniff out Thai Internet users, specifically targeting those producing and reading lèse majesté content, a report says.... One said the device targets keywords related to lèse majesté and that it is relatively powerful and could access all kinds of communication traffic on the internet. Another source said it could even monitor communications using secured protocols. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Thai junta's reach into lives of ordinary Thais continues to grow...
  2. Thai musician jailed for 15 years for insulting royals...
  3. Murder of a Thai poet: Impunity for royalists feeds growing violence...
  4. Thai junta unamused by comedian John Oliver's royal jibes...
  5. Thai government strips overseas dissidents of their passports...
  6. Thailand's generals go after exiles and academics...
  7. Thailand's junta goes after the press...

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