FACT
06 June 2007
Secret May blocklist posted
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.
MICT has relied on Thai ISPs to block the Web but has now changed tactics to block at Thailand's four Internet gateways: Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT), Telephone Organisation of Thailand (TOT), True Internet and Buddy Broadband.
MICT's May 28, 2007 blocklist includes 11,329 websites banned in Thailand from an overall total of 17,793. This is an increase of 90 political websites over April.
January 2004 - 1,247
May 2006 - 2,328
October 2006 - 2,475
January 2007 - 13,435
March 2007 - 10,885
April 2007 - 11,239
May 2007 - 11,329
January 2004 was the last blocklist made public by MICT. The original number of sites nearly doubled by May 2006 but never achieved the numbers the censors had wet dreams about: Thaksin, 2005: "800,000″; MICT, 2006: "10,000″.
That is, until Thailand's military coup d'etat on September 19, 2006. The fifth official order of the coup leader on the day after the coup was to censor the Internet. This action speaks loudly about the weight of strategic importance he placed on the availability of information on the 'net.
The junta also appointed Dr. Sitthichai Pokaiyaudom "Official Censor of the Military Coup" as Minister of Information and Communication Technology. The coup leaders were busy so there wasn't much of a rise in October 2007 but the numbers jumped more than 500% by January 2007! The military censors had bested Thaksin!
Although the numbers dropped somewhat by March 2007, this appears to be MICT eliminating duplication on its list. However, the March figure still represents a more than 400% increase over October and May higher still. One need only compare the numbers from May 2006 (2,328) to May 2007 (11,329).
In May 2007 these figures had risen by only 90 new websites blocked in one month but all of the new sites blocked were political in nature. Anti-coup websites, pro-Thaksin websites, newly-uncovered anonymous proxies, plus all the usual suspects from past blocklists were censored.
The ICT Minister, Dr. Sitthichai Pokaiyaudom, has been variously quoted in the Thai press making statements that, since coming to office in October 2006 as "Official Censor of the Military Coup", his Ministry has blocked "only two", "five", "about a dozen" websites.
More recently, the Official Censor has been quoted as saying he's blocked "not over 20 websites" (Thai Rath: May 29, 2007), "only around 30 all of which were pornographic (Bangkok Post: May 30, 2007) which censorship Dr. Sitthichai comments is not as severe "a violation of human rights" as blocking done under the Thaksin government!
However, the Minister goes on to say, he certainly has not been responsible for blocking "13,000 websites" which he blames on the previous administration, accusing it of being "many times more of a dictator", presumably in comparison with himself! (Thai Rath: May 29, 2007)
Fine...except that the previous government blocked 2,400 sites at the top of its game. MICT's most recent blocklist, downloaded from their website, consists of 11,329 sites with MICT's own numbering system all the way up to 17,793. FACT believes the difference in these numbers indicates websites which were blocked and then were taken off the blocklists for various reasons such as the website being removed or MICT realising it was blocked in error. A website blocked for 10 seconds inadvertently or in error is still censorship.
(Dr. Sitthichai may also have overlooked YouTube; not only is the entire domain still blocked by MICT but so also are 75 separate pages within that domain, just to make extra sure!)
The Minister also states that he expects not to block more than "60″ websites before the term of the coup government expires (Thai Rath: May 29, 2007). Mr. Minister, what about the 90 websites MICT blocked in May alone?!?
Other Ministry officials have told a team of human rights lawyers from Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society investigating Internet censorship in Thailand that MICT blocks "around 2,000″ websites on January 11, the very day FACT received a copy of MICT's secret blocklist of 13,435 blocked sites.
Later that month, on January 26, the same MICT official told the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand that MICT blocks "around 50″ websites.
So which is it? MICT's own blocklists don't lie but it seems their bureaucrats do. This attitude of impunity is more than just simple government obfuscation or bureaucratic confusion. It is even more serious than a smoke-and-mirrors, laissez-faire approach to the truth. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is, in fact, engaged in deliberate deception of the Thai public and the manipulation of public opinion for political gain.
If you find the discrepancy of these numbers astounding, incredible and unbelievable (and who wouldn't!), you can try a simple experiment on any computer in Thailand: pick a website from the blocklist and try to access it. If you can't, MICT lies.
Even the Royal Thai Police, the Thai Webmasters Association and Thai ISPs support MICT releasing their criteria for blocking websites at the very least which they refuse to do. When government hides behind a veil of absolute deniability and lies about it in the face of documentary evidence, one wonders what else they might be hiding.
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) considers the nature of the 90 websites blocked from April to May to be most revealing of MICT's hidden political agenda.
Censorship is obscene. Censorship is dictatorship. Censorship is terrorism.
NO COMPROMISE! NO CENSORSHIP!
Source: FACT MONITORS MICT! They LIE!
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