Internet censorship is an insidious practice, better suited to dictatorships. Welcome Thailand:
Reporters Without Borders condemns the Thai information ministry’s decision at the start of the month to spend up to 12 million euros on creating an Internet firewall to filter out websites deemed guilty of lese-majeste.
“The Thai government’s desire to control online content is indicative of the difficulties it is encountering in recovering some support,” Reporters Without Borders said. “As King Bhumipol Adulajey is very popular, being over-protective of his image is one of the ways the government is using to win over those calling for its overthrow.”
Information and communications technology minister Sitthichai Pokai-udom has reportedly assigned 500 million bahts (12 million euros) to the creation of an Internet filtering mechanism that would track and automatically block websites that “insult” the monarchy. The firewall would above all be aimed at immediately blocking websites based abroad.