New measure seeks to crush criticism at the military government and to crack down on anything that is deemed insulting to the royal institution. Junta has practically issued a gag order to the Thai media.
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Thailand’s Junta Extends Censorship With Mass Online Surveillance
New measure seeks to crush criticism at the military government and to crack down on anything that is deemed insulting to the royal institution. Junta has practically issued a gag order to the Thai media.
New measure seeks to crush criticism at the military government and to crack down on anything that is deemed insulting to the royal institution. Junta has practically issued a gag order to the Thai media.
By Saksith Saiyasombut & Siam Voices Sep 18, 2014 Thailands ruling military junta is further tightening its grip on the public discourse by heightening its censorship measures, going as far as reportedly implementing widespread surveillance of Thai Internet users. The new measure seeks to crush criticism at the military government and to crack down on anything that is deemed insulting to the royal institution also known as lse majest!. "hen the Thai military declared martial law two days before it launched the coup of #ay $$, $%&', one of the main targets was the complete control of the broadcast media, which resulted in the presence of soldiers at all major television channels and the shutdown of thousands of unlicensed community radio stations and over a do(en politically partisan satellite T) channels, primarily those belonging to the warring street protest groups. *early five months later, most of these satellite T) channels +with one notable exception, are back on the air but have been renamed and had to considerably toned down their political leanings before they were allowed to broadcast again. The T) hosts who were last years heavy-hitting political T) commentators are now hosting entertainment programs or, if theyre lucky, return to a talk show format, but only in the name of national .reform/ and .reconciliation/. 0ut the military junta, also formally known as the .*ational 1ouncil for 2eace and 3rder/ +*123,, still has a firm grip on the media, as it has set up specific monitor watchdogs for different media platforms +and also specifically for foreign news outlets, to screen out critical content against the *123. 4urthermore, it has practically issued a gag order to the Thai media only then to reiterate that while criticism against the military junta is allowed, it should only be done .in good faith/. The censorship measures and the monitoring efforts also extend online. 5nlike during the last military coup in $%%6, the emergence of social media networks makes it a daunting uphill battle for the junta to control the narrative. *evertheless, the authorities have always been eager to have more control to filter and censor online content and have blatantly resorted tophishing for user information, and even considered launching its own national social network. 7nd there was this8 In late May, a brief block of the social network Facebook sparked uproar online, while statements by the Ministry for Information and Telecommunication Technology (MICT) and the NC! o"er whether or not the Facebook#block was ordered or it was an $technical glitch% contradicted each other& It emerged later through a the foreign parent company of a Thai telco company that there actually was an order to block Facebook, for which it got scolded by the Thai authorities& Thailand's (unta sets up media watchdogs to monitor anti#coup dissent$, )iam *oices+,sian Correspondent, -une ./, .012 The junta also reactivated its .1yber 9cout/-initiative, recruiting school children and students to monitor online content for dissidents, and announced plans for internet cafes to install cameras so that parents can remotely monitor what their kids are doing. The towering motive of the juntas online monitoring efforts has been recently laid out by outgoing army chief, junta leader and 2rime #inister :eneral 2rayuth 1han-ocha8 3en& rayuth outlined a strategy to $defend% the monarchy in a speech (4) 5its6 transcript describes the monarchy as an important element of Thai#style democracy and an institution that the 7oyal Thai 3o"ernment is obliged to uphold $with loyalty and defense of 8is Ma(estic ,uthority&% 9e will use legal measures, social#psychological measures, and telecommunications and information technology to deal with those who are not mindful of their words, are arrogant at heart, or harbour ill intentions to undermine the important Institution of the nation,% the speech reads& :nder )ection 11. of Thailand's Criminal Codes, insulting the royal family is a criminal offense punishable by up to 1; years in prison& The law, known as lese ma(este, has been harshly enforced since the military staged a coup against the elected go"ernment on .. May& (4) rayuth *ows Tougher Crackdown !n ,nti#Monarchists$, <haosod =nglish, )eptember 11, .012 7nd in order to achieve this, the junta reportedly doubled down its online monitoring earlier this week8 Thai authorities reportedly planned to implement a sur"eillance de"ice starting from 1; )eptember to sniff out Thai Internet users, specifically targeting those producing and reading l>se ma(est? content, a report says& ,lthough the report is yet to be confirmed, it has created greater climate of fear among media& rachatai has recei"ed unconfirmed reports from two different sources& !ne said the de"ice targets keywords related to l>se ma(est? and that it is relati"ely powerful and could access all kinds of communication traffic on the internet& ,nother source said it could e"en monitor communications using secured protocols& ,fter learning about this, a national le"el Thai#language newspaper editorial team has reluctantly resorted to a policy of greater self# censorship& Its editor warned editorial staff not to browse any l>se ma(est? website at work and think twice before reporting any story related to l>se ma(est?& Thai authorities reportedly to conduct mass sur"eillance of Thai internet users, targeting l>se ma(est?$, rachatai =nglish, )eptember 10, .012 3n "ednesday, it was reported that amidst severe internet slowdowns across 9outheast 7siadue to a damaged undersea connection cable extra internet filtering in Thailand has been activated. There is no doubt that Thailands military junta is determined to go forward with its own, very exclusive way of governing and tightly controlling the narrative through widespread media censorship and massive online surveillance. 0y invoking the need to .protect the monarchy/, the military has a convenient weapon to act against dissidents in real life and in the virtual domain as well, no matter where they are. 7ccording to the legal watchdog *:3 i;aw, over $<% people have been detained by the junta between #ay $$ and 9eptember =. >ighty-six of them are facing trial, most of them before a military court. 4ifteen of those are cases concerning lse majest!. ???????????????????????? 7bout the author8 9aksith 9aiyasombut blogs extensively about Thai politics and current affairs since $%&% and works as an international freelance broadcast journalist. @ead his full bio on about.meAsaksith. 2osted by Thavam