#  >  > Computers Can Be Fun >  >  > Computer News >  >  The Great Firewall Is Coming

## aging one

Just saw this on the local news feed it looks like the internet here is going  be censored even heavier along the lines of China, and North Korea. Getting more scary by the day.


*Govt orders great firewall of Thailand*
Don Sambandaraska

*BANGKOK: -- Thailands military  government has ordered the creation of a great firewall of Thailand to  control the flow of information on the Internet.*

General Prayuths cabinet ordered the ICT and Justice Ministries and the  National Police Department to set up a single internet gateway in order  to control inappropriate websites and to control the flow of  information into the country from overseas via the internet.

A subsequent cabinet resolution ordered the agencies to report back with  any laws that would need to be enacted or amended prior to setting up  the single gateway.

The order was quietly given by the Cabinet on 30 June and the follow-up  order for the agencies to report back with any laws that needed amending  was given by the cabinet on 4 September.

The cabinet resolution was just unearthed on social media by someone  browsing the official government cabinet resolution repository.

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## Horatio Hornblower

General Happiness orders Great Firewall of Thailand

Thailand’s military government has ordered the creation of a great firewall of Thailand to control the flow of information on the Internet.

General Prayuth’s cabinet ordered the ICT and Justice Ministries and the National Police Department to set up a single internet gateway in order to control inappropriate websites and to control the flow of information into the country from overseas via the internet.

A subsequent cabinet resolution ordered the agencies to report back with any laws that would need to be enacted or amended prior to setting up the single gateway.

The order was quietly given by the Cabinet on 30 June and the follow-up order for the agencies to report back with any laws that needed amending was given by the cabinet on 4 September.

The cabinet resolution was just unearthed on social media by someone browsing the official government cabinet resolution repository. Prem Sichanugrist or @sikachu on Twitter said, “Yes. Thailand is about to have The Great Firewall just like China, except it will be s****ier and corrupted as hell”.

He also tweeted that politics aside, from a systems point of view, having a single gateway and a single point of failure is a bad idea.

Back in the old days, only CAT Telecom ran a commercial gateway alongside a handful of tiny academic connections. Deregulating this sector and creating competition is arguably the only success the Thai telecom regulator has had since it came into existence, speeding up internet access and enhancing reliability.

CAT has always acted more as a rent collector rather than a telco. It’s 2G era CDMA network was an unmitigated disaster and in the 3G era things are not that much better despite all the free spectrum and public money.

From an internet connectivity point of view, one sees Thailand at the center of the region, yet it seems like all the major cable systems skirt around Thailand, coming up through Malaysia then jumping into the sea before surfacing again in Vietnam.

Some say it was CAT’s fault as it tried to charge exorbitant fees, so much so that everyone decided to go submarine instead of overland.

The continued existence of the single gateway project makes a total mockery of everything new ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said about turning Thailand into a data center hub for the region and building better connectivity. Would anyone in their right mind host a regional operation in Thailand under these circumstances?

A return to the gold old days of a CAT monopoly would be disastrous. The people of Thailand can kiss a fast internet goodbye purely from technical incompetence, not to mention all the monitoring, censoring and deep packet inspection the military want. Would VPN and encryption be outlawed? That would be a logical next step.

The cabinet resolution was for a way to censor and to control the flow of information and that cannot be done with strong encryption. The cabinet resolution said to report back on any laws that needed to be changed to make this possible. Banning encryption would be a logical law to pass to make the original cabinet resolution implementable.

Good bye privacy. It was nice to have known you.

General Happiness orders Great Firewall of Thailand | Telecom Asia

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## taxexile

TD could be first against the wall then.

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## birding

Bad move general, information works for you as well as against and an informed population can only be good. 

But then I suppose they could do it the US way and monitor everyone's phones as well as their internet. For security purposes of course..

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## Hans Mann

> The TNN coordinator added that the MICT then even proposed the idea of creating a special version of Facebook for Thailand and to require people to fill in their ID numbers before using the internet.


From another site.... :sexy:

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## Horatio Hornblower

great way to get people jailed just get there ID and post what you want. :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## Hans Mann

The special version of Facebook for Thailand will be called SavingFacebook, yes.

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## Nawtier

Losefacemuchbook....... thailand is awesome...  :rofl:

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## stroller

> Bad move general, information works for you as well as against and an informed population can only be good.


Too much false information and negative commentary is bad for Democracy in Thailand.  :Smile:

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## buriramboy

It does make you worry for Thailand's future, things are going to go from bad to worse in the not to distant future.

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## AntRobertson

Hmmmm... Might be time for one of those anonymous IP thingies (I think that's the technical term)

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## thaimeme

> Originally Posted by birding
> 
> 
> Bad move general, information works for you as well as against and an informed population can only be good. 
> 
> 
> 
> Too much false information and negative commentary is bad for Democracy in Thailand.


Paranoia, the destroyer.

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## S Landreth

> Hmmmm... Might be time for one of those anonymous IP thingies (I think that's the technical term)


What I use [over 250 IP addresses (all over the world) you can pick from],......


https://www.ipvanish.com/

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## Nawtier

Do you think Conehead knew something ?...timing outstanding....come in suckers

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## cyrille

> great way to get people jailed just get there ID and post what you want.


Would be tough getting all the primary school spelling mistakes 'right'.

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## chassamui

Any fool knows that a well run military organisation relies heavily on two way communication ..... oh wait

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## harrybarracuda

> Bad move general, information works for you as well as against and an informed population can only be good. 
> 
> But then I suppose they could do it the US way and monitor everyone's phones as well as their internet. For security purposes of course..


"Could"?

 :Smile:

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## Nawtier

Great country hey tezza.....even just the thought of it speaks volumes....to implement it...outstanding effort

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## stroller

> Originally Posted by birding
> 
> 
> Bad move general, information works for you as well as against and an informed population can only be good. 
> 
> But then I suppose they could do it the US way and monitor everyone's phones as well as their internet. For security purposes of course..
> 
> 
> "Could"?


I was surprised how many Thai gov, military and police institutes were on the block list of my anti-spy software!

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## wasabi

The Thai elite, whoever they are, because I have no interest in them, have underestimated how popular Facebook has become with everyday Thais, living everywhere in the world.
Thais post on FB post the most subversive material, look My food I eat, look my new dress, look my friends visiting me, look my bag of 10kilo Thai rice, buy for £15 from Thai market shop in Rochester.

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## david44

Splendi news our better suntainted by ignorance,nepotism and corruption are leading the challenge to Miss Info

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## thailazer

Quite a week for Thailand.   New York Times doesn't get printed due to a front page story and the news about the firewall comes out.

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## Horatio Hornblower

The economist had a similar story.

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## thaimeme

> The economist had a similar story.


I believe The Economist has been on the Thai establishment's black list/censor list for a few years now - bad blood between the two.

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## withnallstoke

> Paranoia, the destroyer.


Kinky.

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## Nawtier

When is thailand developing nuclear weapons ?

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## thaimeme

> Originally Posted by thaimeme
> 
> Paranoia, the destroyer.
> 
> 
> Kinky.


Ray Davies is my hero.
 :Wink:

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## david44

> Originally Posted by withnallstoke
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by thaimeme
> ...


They sneak im ere,Ought to loose unset

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## misskit

*Single internet gateway clarified*

The Ministry of information and Communication Technology yesterday defended its proposed single internet gateway amid outcry by hundreds of thousands of users that it will violate rights to access to information and individual privacy.

Instead it says the gateway project was proposed to drive the Single Gateway project towards economical benefits and national security, the ICT Minister says.

ICT Minister of Uttama Savanayana said the project intends to facilitate economic expansion as providers will be able to cut their costs from common uses of the facility.

He assured that the project will not violate any privacy or rights of individuals, claiming that this arrangement will  further enhance data security as the authorities will have better access to information regarding online offences.

He stressed that the government does not intend to utilize the new gateway arrangement for the political stability reasons.

He asked the public not to worry much as  the project is just being studied.

The ministry will invite representatives from the business sector and the general public to further inform the details of this project, he said.

Single internet gateway clarified - Thai PBS English News

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## Nawtier

Dun worry much....trustbus

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## harrybarracuda

If you think access to the interwebnet was slow before......

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## misskit

*ICT website under attack from netizens*

The website of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology was down Wednesday night hours before the planned 10 pm attack of the website by netizens to protest against the government’s planned launch of the single gateway to control access to all websites.

A message was found posted on the website, www.mict.go.th which reads “404 Page Not Found. Sorry. The page you want to see was erased”.

But ICT deputy permanent secretary Somsak Khaosuwan denied that the website was out of order. He admitted that access to the site was slow because there were many users trying to access the page.

He questioned the motive of the netizens who plotted and joined the attack claiming that the ICT has not enforced the single gateway.

“Why can’t we talk to find a way out? It is better than persuading people to cause damage to the state,” said Mr Somsak.

The Thai Netizen Network and netizens opposed to the single gateway plan have urged netizens to simultaneously access to the ICT’s website at 10 pm by means of “DdoS” and press the F5 key on the keyboard for refresh.

ICT website under attack from netizens - Thai PBS English News

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## misskit

*Govt 'Gateway’ Denials Contradict Cabinet Resolutions*

BANGKOK — Facing broad criticism to its plan to funnel all internet traffic through a single, government-managed choke point, the military government now insists the project has not been initiated despite evidence to the contrary.

Weeks after the cabinet ordered officials to “speed up” development of the single-gateway project, officials from the top down have done an about-face after internet users banded together to bring down at least six government agencies’ websites to protest the plan.

“I have not ordered [the government] to go ahead with this. I merely told them to study it, but there has been some misinterpretation,” junta chairman Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said today. “Right now, this matter is only under study. There’s nothing.”

Several other officials including the top telecommunications minister have come forward to echo the assertion the project hasn’t left the concept stage.

more  Govt 'Gateway? Denials Contradict Cabinet Resolutions

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## harrybarracuda

BlueCoat will be really upset, I would imagine they would have been rubbing their little hands with glee.

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## DrB0b

> TD could be first against the wall then.


Why? There is absolutely nothing on TD that is any threat to anybody.

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## thaimeme

> Originally Posted by taxexile
> 
> 
> TD could be first against the wall then.
> 
> 
> Why? There is absolutely nothing on TD that is any threat to anybody.


Not for some time now.
Any hint has been quashed.

Yet, there was a time when Thai political discussions were quite lively, open, and encouraged here......events have led many to a sort of survival mode.

It is what it is.

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## baldrick

> BlueCoat will be really upset


TRUE already use their trans proxy - have since about 2008-9

but from what I can see the thai network is design fcuked anyway - like the fcuked up roads , all the traffic gets routed to bkk first any way

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## misskit

*Activists Issue Ultimatum to Junta over ‘Single Gateway’*

By Teeranai Charuvastra 

BANGKOK — Online activists have given the military government eight days to cancel its plan to route all internet traffic through a single point of control – or else see an escalation of their cyberattacks.

After calling Friday for the plan to be abandoned by 14 Oct., the activists united online as “Citizens Against Single Gateway: Thailand Internet Firewall” repeated their ultimatum yesterday, promising to cripple government websites should the government not cancel four Cabinet Resolutions authorizing the project.

“The government still has not changed its stance at all, which only means one thing: The government is still pushing ahead with the implementation of single gateway, in accordance with the existing Cabinet Resolutions (which are legally-binding),” the statement read. “Therefore, Citizens Against Single Gateway is forced to issue a louder voice of warning to the government once again.”

The group listed eight government websites, including the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, and encouraged its supporters to bring the sites down in a massive click-and-refresh attack - a rudimentary cyberattack known as distributed denial of service, or DDOS.

Meanwhile military officials have flat-out denied they have initiated the project, insisting the plan is still “under study.” Steps appear to have been taken to make that retroactively true -- one of the first of four Cabinet Resolutions authorizing the project has been removed from the cabinet’s website.



Virtual Escalation

Although the activists managed to bring down six government agencies’ websites on 30 Sept., they failed last night to repeat the same feat. The Citizens Against Single Gateway later posted to Facebook a statement saying the government has rerouted its servers to other countries.

“If the state is still stubborn, we will use a heavier weapon in the next round,” the statement said, adding, “Please wait for another official statement about our stances tomorrow at 10pm.”

Maj. Gen. Rittee Intravudh, director of the army’s cyberwarfare unit, told reporters today the attack failed because internet users refused to become tools of the activists.

“I’d like to thank netizens and the media for helping to create understanding, so that this wave of dissent is decreased, and for not becoming someone’s instruments,” he said. “Targeted websites did not encounter any disruption to their function or the display of information beneficial to people who view the sites.”

He also said that the army is collecting IP addresses of users to take legal action against them for their campaign.

The timing of the activists' deadline has symbolic value: a student uprising toppled a previous military junta on 14 Oct., 1973.

The military junta first floated the idea of building a single gateway soon after seizing power from the elected government in May 2014.

Officials insist that channeling all internet traffic through a single choke point - similar to the “Great Firewall of China” - would allow law enforcement to easily track down individuals who commit online crimes and post messages deemed harmful to national security.

A series of Cabinet Resolutions, signed 30 June, 21 July, 4 Aug. and 25 Aug., explicitly ordered relevant agencies to “urgently” install the single gateway. Under Thai law, Cabinet Resolutions are legally-binding government instructions. Their legality can only be repealed by another Cabinet Resolution.

The 30 June resolution, which specifically ordered  officials to “implement a single gateway to be used as a device to control inappropriate websites and flow of news and information from overseas through the internet system” can no longer be found on the cabinet’s website. The meeting minutes are still accessible.

A government spokesperson said yesterday that the activists’ ultimatum is impossible because there was no plan to for it in the first place.
“How can the government cancel that project when the government and related agencies have insisted many times already that we haven’t begun to do anything at all?” Maj. Gen. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak said. “... It’s just something to study as a way to prevent danger from social media.”

Suwaphan Tanyuwattana of the Prime Minister’s Office, repeated the same claim in an interview yesterday.

“[The Prime Minister] has clearly stated that we are not moving ahead with the single gateway.”

He also warned the activists’ DDOS campaign would only “cause trouble to the nation and the people.”

Activists Issue Ultimatum to Junta over ?Single Gateway?

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## misskit

*Internet Activists Declare ‘Cyber War’ on Junta*



BANGKOK — Online activists announced last night they will launch a full-scale assault against the military government Tuesday after it ignored their demand it issue a cabinet resolution scrapping the single internet gateway policy.

After earlier giving an ultimatum of 12 days for the junta to formally cancel the project, the self-proclaimed “Thailand F5 Cyber Army” announced last night it will attack government websites and servers, and then escalate them weekly for the next month until such a resolution is issued.

“As the government ignored our previous warning and the deadline is due, we now declare a cyber war against the dictator government,” read the statement posted last night to the Citizens Against Single Gateway group on Facebook.

The group posted on Facebook four demands they said must be met.

Those behind the Facebook page are anonymous, but their cause has drawn support by tapping into anxiety online about government interference with the internet.

more here  Internet Activists Declare ?Cyber War? on Junta

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## harrybarracuda

> Those behind the Facebook page are anonymous


I have a feeling these "disgruntled netizens" won't be anonymous for very long.

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## baldrick

> F5


whats wrong with the traditional ctrl+shift+r  :Smile:   or the LOIC

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## misskit

*No Shock, Awe from 'Cyber War' as ‘National' Gateway Moves Forward*

BANGKOK — Damage from an attack on government services online appeared limited today, while state-owned CAT Telecom said it will begin preparations to build a single gateway project that has been rebranded as a business-positive part of the kingdom’s “digital economy” strategy.

Online activists declared victory in the opening of their “cyber war” to punish the junta for not abandoning its ambition to route all traffic through a single channel, but their damage seemed limited to affecting certain systems of the army’s finance department.

“At 1:15pm, the Citizens Against Single Gateway claimed our victory in the first stage after our cyber war declaration,” the group wrote its latest statement posted online. “We made the financial accounting system of the Finance Department of the Royal Thai Armed Force Headquarters unable to work for more than three hours.”

The group had first called for supporters to overwhelm the department’s web server by reloading its pages, but changed tactics an hour and a half later to the online accounting system. Links to the accounting system do not work at time of publication. Its web site otherwise seemed to be unaffected.

Meanwhile state telecommunications operator CAT Telecom has said it is preparing to build what’s now being called by officials the “National Internet Gateway” project, promoted as a potential economic boon.

The term “national gateway” was first used days after the military seized power in 2014 when it announced its intention to “govern” inappropriate content online by constructing a single gateway for internet traffic in and out of Thailand.

"We want the national gateway to be a more effective tool than the current mechanism for regulating internet use," former ICT Minister Surachai Srisarakam said in a May 2014 Bangkok Post story. At the time, he indicated it would be rolled out by July 2014 and operated by CAT, state telecom TOT and a number of internet service providers.

CAT, which operates Thailand’s international gateways, said Monday it will establish a committee to pursue the project.

"The national internet gateway is a part of the country's digital-hub strategy. It is not aimed at consolidating all international Internet traffic through a single gateway to control internet content, as people understand," acting CAT CEO, Col. Sanpachai Huvanandana was quoted saying in The Nation.

While CAT looks to play a central role in the plan, another precedent will be set when a top intelligence official is expected to take over as chairman.

Gen. Thawip Netrniyom, chief of the National Security Council, is expected to join at the head of CAT’s board. It would be the first time the head of the National Security Council became the top authority at CAT. CAT under Thawip is expected to focus on cybersecurity.

Word that the military government was taking action to extend its reach into the online world through the gateway project invited public outcry almost as soon as it was publicized one month ago.

For weeks the government played down its commitment to the plan, with related agencies and the telecommunications minister insisting last week the plan had dropped. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha incensed opponents when he made it clear the plan was still alive, saying it was needed for national security reasons and to end online dissent against his government.

On the same day, Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan also revealed plans to establish a new army cyber unit but said it was unrelated to the single gateway project.

No Shock, Awe from 'Cyber War' as ?National' Gateway Moves Forward

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## Nawtier

Thailand...dark ages...gunna get worse before it gets better..

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## ChiangMai noon

Do they really think that there's anything they can do that will be foolproof?

Of course not, so why waste the time and money.

Go with the international flow and save face.

That's what matters.

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## FlyFree

> set up a single internet gateway in order  to control inappropriate websites and to control the flow of  information into the country from overseas via the internet.


Third time in ten years that this idea has been touted. Like so many ideas in Thailand I'll believe it when I see it.

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## harrybarracuda

> Do they really think that there's anything they can do that will be foolproof?
> 
> Of course not, so why waste the time and money.
> 
> Go with the international flow and save face.
> 
> That's what matters.


I think you'd be surprised what they can do.

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## misskit

*‘Anonymous’ Declares War on Thai Junta*

BANGKOK — A worldwide collective of hackers whose shifting membership has successfully attacked corporations and governments declared its own war on the military government for its plan to build a single internet gateway.

While attacks by Thai netizens Thursday seemed to have little effect, Anonymous posted a statement addressed to the junta saying "you will pay the price of your oppression" and also claimed to have stolen sensitive information from the state-run telecom bidding to build the gateway.

“Any corporations or individuals helping to deploy this single gateway will be targeted by any electronic means,” read the statement announced through Twitter. “We will not only fight against the single gateway project but will expose your incompetence to the world, where depravity and personal interests prevail.”

Images posted to Anonymous accounts showed what was purported to be part of logins, passwords and associated national ID numbers stolen from CAT Telecom.

Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha acknowledged the attack and has ordered authorities to arrest the hackers responsible, according to Daily News. Officials said the information obtained was not real.

CAT Telecom president Col. Sappachai Huwanant told Thairath he wasn't sure the hack took place.

"Hacking into the database of our customers is possible in theory, but in practice CAT is confident in our security system, because the database is kept in the backdoor. There are many layers of security."

Thailand’s activists have seemed unable to launch more sophisticated attacks and have relied on one of the bluntest object of disruption – mashing buttons to refresh web pages – which had some success when first brought to bear Sept. 30.

On Thursday, the Thailand F5 Cyber Army opened its “war” on the junta by crippling an army finance department system but were unable to shut down its web server.

The military government first announced it would build a single gateway to “govern” the internet in the days immediately after the May 2014 coup d’etat. Beginning in June, a series of cabinet resolutions ordered related agencies to speed up the process of implementing it.

In response to public outcry, junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha and his team said the idea was only be studied, but on Tuesday, Prayuth said the gateway was needed to end online dissent against his government. That coincided with an attempt to rebrand the gateway project, which would channel all internet traffic through one point of control, as something that would benefit the kingdom’s digital economy.

Anonymous is a leaderless collective of hacktivists that coalesced online after the turn of the century. It is not tied to any nation, but draws support from members throughout the world for activities which support everything from libertarian principles, progressive causes and internet freedom to mere pranks, "just for the lulz."

They've been accused by the governments they target of being nothing more than criminals and digital terrorists.

?Anonymous? Declares War on Thai Junta

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## sabang

I think the largely sinothai self styled 'Establishment' here wants to return Thailand to being a third world country, replete with some fantasy of happy smiling peasants chewing straw under a banana tree. It won't work, never has, and only spells trouble ahead unless comparitively level headed people like Somkid can talk some sense into them.

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## stroller

They'd have to take away their i-phones first.

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## harrybarracuda

> I think the largely sinothai self styled 'Establishment' here wants to return Thailand to being a third world country


'Return'?

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## Dragonfly

how is it different from what most European democracies have done ? the NSA, MI6 etc... all have these "central" gateway to monitor all traffic in and out of their country

China and Vietnam were the first to do it in the 90s, we are simply catching up now

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## Chittychangchang

> They'd have to take away their i-phones first.


Steady on! They don't want a non bloodless coup.

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## misskit

* ‘Back Door’ in CCA Not Trojan Horse for Single Gateway, Drafters Say*

Sasiwan Mokkhasen
Khao Sod English

BANGKOK —  Those tasked with rewriting the national cybercrime law on Wednesday dismissed suspicions the process was being used to revive a project to route and control internet traffic through a single gateway.

Speaking at Parliament House, drafters said recently introduced language that would open a  backdoor for authorities to directly censor content was not part of bringing back the controversial project digital rights activists suspect is still moving forward.

more  ?Back Door? in CCA Not Trojan Horse for Single Gateway, Drafters Say

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