Thailands junta extends censorship with mass online surveillance

BySaksith Saiyasombut & Siam VoicesSep 18, 2014Asian CorrespondentThailands ruling military junta isfurther tightening itsgriponthe public discourse by heightening its censorship measures, going as far as reportedly implementing widespreadsurveillance of Thai Internetusers. The new measure seeks to crush criticism at the military government and tocrack down on anything that is deemed insulting to the royal institution also known as lse majest.When the Thai military declared martial law two days before it launched the coupof May 22, 2014, one ofthe main targetswas 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 dozen politically partisan satellite TV channels,primarily those belonging to the warring street protest groups.Nearly five months later, most of these satellite TV channels (withone notable exception) are back on the air but have beenrenamed and had to considerably toned downtheir political leanings before they were allowed to broadcast again.TheTV hosts who were last years heavy-hitting political TV 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.But the military junta, also formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO),still has afirm grip on the media, as it hasset upspecific monitor watchdogs for different media platforms(and also specifically for foreign news outlets) to screen out critical content against the NCPO. Furthermore, ithaspractically issued a gag order to the Thai media only then to reiterate that while criticism against the military junta is allowed, it shouldonly be done in good faith.The censorship measures and the monitoring efforts also extend online. Unlike during the last military coup in 2006, the emergence of social media networks makes it a daunting uphill battle for the juntato control the narrative. Nevertheless, the authorities havealways been eagerto have more control to filter and censor online content and have blatantlyresorted tophishing for user information, andevenconsidered launching its ownnational social network.And there was this:In late May,a brief block of the social network Facebooksparked uproar online, while statements by the Ministry for Information andTelecommunicationTechnology (MICT) and the NCPO over whether or not the Facebook-block was ordered or it was an technical glitchcontradicted each other. It emerged later through a the foreign parent company of a Thai telco companythatthere actually was an orderto block Facebook, for which itgot scolded by the Thai authorities.Thailands junta sets up media watchdogs to monitor anti-coup dissent, Siam Voices/Asian Correspondent, June 26, 2014The junta alsoreactivated its Cyber Scout-initiative, recruiting school children and students to monitor online content for dissidents, and announcedplans forinternet cafes to install camerasso that parents can remotely monitor what their kids are doing.The toweringmotive of the juntas onlinemonitoring efforts has been recently laid out by outgoing army chief, junta leader andPrime MinisterGeneral Prayuth Chan-ocha:Gen. Prayuth outlined a strategy to defend the monarchy in a speech() [its]transcriptdescribes the monarchy as an important element of Thai-style democracy and an institution that the Royal Thai Government is obliged to uphold with loyalty and defense of His Majestic Authority.We 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.Under Section 112 of Thailands Criminal Codes, insulting the royal family is a criminal offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.The law, known as lese majeste, has been harshly enforced since the military staged a coup against the elected government on22 May. ()Prayuth Vows Tougher Crackdown On Anti-Monarchists, Khaosod English, September 11, 2014And in order to achieve this, the junta reportedly doubled down its online monitoringearlier this week:Thai authorities reportedly planned toimplement a surveillance device starting from 15 September to sniff out Thai Internet users, specifically targeting those producing and reading lse majest content, a report says.Although the report is yet to be confirmed, it has created greater climate of fear among media.Prachatai has received unconfirmed reports from two different sources.One said the device targets keywords related to lse majest 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.After learning about this, a national level Thai-language newspaper editorial team has reluctantly resorted to a policy of greater self-censorship. Its editor warned editorial staff not to browse any lse majest website at work and think twice before reporting any story related to lse majest.Thai authorities reportedly to conduct mass surveillance of Thai internet users, targeting lse majest, Prachatai English, September 10, 2014On Wednesday,it wasreported that amidstsevere internet slowdowns acrossSoutheast Asiadue to adamaged underseaconnection cableextra 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 throughwidespread media censorship and massive online surveillance. By invoking theneed to protect the monarchy, the military has a convenient weaponto act against dissidentsin real life and in the virtual domain as well, no matter where they are.According to the legal watchdog NGOiLaw, over 270 people have been detained by the junta between May 22 and September 5.Eighty-sixof them are facing trial, most of them before a military court. Fifteenof thoseare cases concerning lse majest.________________________
About the author:
Saksith Saiyasombutblogsextensivelyabout Thai politics and current affairs since 2010 and works as aninternationalfreelance broadcast journalist. Read his full bio onabout.me/saksith.Posted byThavam