Restrictions to accessing online resources in Thailand
Most Internet censorship in Thailand prior to the September 2006 military coup d'état was focused on blocking pornographic websites. The following years have seen a constant stream of sometimes violent protests, regional unrest,[1] emergency decrees,[2] a new cybercrimes law,[3] and an updated Internal Security Act.[4] Year by year Internet censorship has grown, with its focus shifting to lèse majesté, national security, and political issues. By 2010, estimates put the number of websites blocked at over 110,000.[5] In December 2011, a dedicated government operation, the Cyber Security Operation Center, was opened. Between its opening and March 2014, the Center told ISPs to block 22,599 URLs.[6]
The subsequent 2014 Thai coup d'état has led to further restrictions on Internet content in the country, using the powers of the coup's National Council for Peace and Order.[7]
The national constitution provides for freedom of expression and press "as regulated by law"; but, the government imposes overwhelming limitations on these rights.[8] Internet filtering in Thailand was classified as selective in the social, political, and Internet tools areas, and no evidence of filtering was found in the conflict/security area by the OpenNet Initiative in November 2011.[9] Thailand is on Reporters Without Borders list of countries under surveillance in 2011.[10]
In 2013, Freedom House, one year prior to the 2014 coup d'état, awarded Thailand a 'partly free' rating for internet freedom. In 2014, it awarded Thailand an overall score of 62 ("not free") (0=best, 100=worst), citing substantial political censorship and the arrests of bloggers and other online users, ranking it 52 of 65 countries.[11] As of 2019, Thailand remained 'not free', with an overall score of 35, fourth worst in the Asia-Pacific region, after China, Vietnam, and Pakistan.[12]
^AFP, Thailand says southern unrest worsening, 8 March 2011 Archived 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
^"Thai Cabinet agrees to lift emergency decree in Bangkok" Archived 7 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Kocha Olam, CNN World, 21 December 2010
^Act on Computer Crime B.E. 2550 Archived 10 February 2015 at the Library of Congress Web Archives, 10 June 2007, English translation
^"Thailand lifts state of emergency, what now?" Archived 7 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Asian Correspondent.com, Hybrid News Limited, 22 December 2010
^"Thailand's Massive Internet Censorship" Archived 21 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, Asia Sentinel, 22 July 2010
^"Over 100 URLs blocked under Martial law", Prachatai, 24 March 2014
^Under martial law, Thai authorities shut down some websites, Prachatai, 22 March 2014
^"Thailand", Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State
^"Thailand Country Profile", Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace, Ronald J. Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain, MIT Press and the OpenNet Initiative, Nov 2011, ISBN 978-0-262-01678-0
^Internet Enemies Archived 15 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Reporters Without Borders, Paris, March 2011
^"Freedom on the Net, 2014: Thailand". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
^"Freedom on the Net 2019" (PDF). Freedom House.
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