The Defence Minister has ordered all military units to monitor and subdue any subversive actions against the monarchy in cyber space and at political rallies.  But months before this order, Provincial Army ROTC Training Centre 33, based in Chiang Mai, had already had high school students vow their loyalty on YouTube, and recently set up a web service for any citizen to report offensive websites.

Sawatree Suksri, a lecturer of the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, who has studied computer-related law in Germany, talked to Prachatai about the 2007 Computer Crimes Act which she finds too ambiguous in many points, including, for example, national security, which has been subject to arbitrary interpretations by the authorities.

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) expresses its concern over a statement made by Information and Communication Technology Minister Ranongrak Suwanchawee of Thailand threatening to pursue legal action against websites and their respective Internet service providers (ISPs) where posts discussing the King’s health allegedly caused the drop in the Thai bourse last month.

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology has told Internet Service Providers to deal with offending websites, saying if they fail to do so, the Ministry will close them. 

We have just discovered free Thai language news site Liberal Thai blocked by a transparent proxy redirecting users to Thailand’s ICT ministry.

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) is seeking more cooperation from relevant agencies and business groups to prevent inappropriate content on the internet.  The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) says the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) is authorized to withdraw or suspend the licenses of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who do not cooperate in blocking inappropriate web pages.

9,600 web pages have been blocked. The 2007 Computer Crimes Act will be amended to allow Internet Service Providers to immediately block ‘offensive’ web pages on sight or upon complaint without court orders or requests from the MICT, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry says.

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Using a combination of high-tech online sleuthing and a century-old royal defamation law, Thai authorities are tightening the screws on free speech here during a sensitive time for its influential monarchy.

On July 27, Danny O'Brien, International Coordinator of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), expressed his astonishment at learning that the Minister of Information and Communications Technology had revealed that the ministry had already dealt with 16,944 URLs with improper content.

18 July 2007 The cabinet meeting on 17 July 2007 approved the Ministerial Regulation to Confiscate and Seize Computer Systems.

On 18 July 2007, a law to prevent cyber crime is expected to come into force in Thailand. It will be the first law in the country to govern the Internet. This capsule report outlines developments relating to the Internet since the 19 September 2006 coup that ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) has just downloaded the most current, official, secret blocklist from the servers at Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and posted it to FACT's website.

Prachatai - 2 June 2007 - Amidst rising concern over Internet censorship in the country, the Information and Communication Ministry (ICT) on Friday raised another "concern" over a "satiric" view allegedly carried in the popular online newspaper website Prachatai.com.

Thailand’s military-backed government is undermining free political debate and delaying the return to democracy by barring access to many political websites, Human Rights Watch said today.