Thread: Thai Internet 'not free': Freedom House

Imagine that. Thailand's internet is not free. Who knew???

Asia Times Online :: Asia cracks down on Internet

Asia cracks down on Internet
By Martin J Young

Sep 29, 2012

HUA HIN, Thailand - According to the Freedom on the Net 2012 report released this week by Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization, government attacks against bloggers, politically motivated surveillance, proactive manipulation of web content, and restrictive laws regulating speech online are the biggest emerging threats to Internet freedom in the last two years.

Throughout Asia there have been several changes in the freedom online rankings, unfortunately for netizens in the region most have been in the wrong direction. The ratings for each country, which categorize them as "free", "partly free" or "not free", were compiled from a number of factors including barriers to Internet access, limits on content, and violations of user rights.

Pakistan and Egypt saw the biggest declines from 2011, with India, China, Malaysia, and South Korea, showing a slight decline in freedom online. Still ranked "not free" in 2012 are Thailand, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

Indonesia and Myanmar showed improvement in rankings following recent reforms and the Philippines remained the country with most Internet freedom in the region.

According to the report, new laws or directives in 19 of the 47 countries analyzed have been passed since January 2011. These have been implemented to restrict online speech, violate user privacy, or punish individuals who post content deemed objectionable or undesirable.

In 26 of the countries, including several "democratic" states, at least one blogger or Internet user was arrested for content posted online or sent via text message, indicating a notable increase in crackdowns on political speech on the web.

China, home to the world's largest Internet population, has intensified its war on the web with authorities abducting and arresting dozens of activists and bloggers and tightening controls over social and blogging websites. It has one of the most technologically advanced systems of control over the Internet, so much so that other countries such as Iran and Uzbekistan are looking towards it for guidance.

Iran, Pakistan and Egypt are all witnessing unprecedented levels of web censorship and surveillance following civil unrest and the dissemination of ostensibly insulting and blasphemous content. In extreme cases, the death sentence has been imposed on violators.

Bandwidth throttling, blanket censorship, mobile phone surveillance, keyword filtering, virtual private network (VPN) bans, and social media culling are all commonplace in these countries. Iran is even taking steps to cut itself off from the global Internet all together and establish its own highly controlled national intranet.

The Russian government has also taken steps to tighten controls over Internet communications following anti-government protests that began in December 2011.

Thailand is intensifying its censorship efforts and spending more state funds on chasing down those that violate the draconian <redacted> laws within the Kingdom while Vietnam is more concerned with suppressing bloggers that are posting anti-Communist Party news.

The Freedom House report findings and projections are very bleak for Asia where there are increasingly fewer and fewer bastions of Internet freedom.


Software

The next iteration of Microsoft's flagship Windows operating system is still not ready for deployment according to microchip giant Intel. Chief Executive Paul Otellini told employees at a company event in Taiwan that Windows 8 is being released before it is fully ready.

Microsoft is eager to get Windows 8 out to the public in time for the coming holiday and spending season in the west. The tablet friendly touch screen operating system can then compete with rivals from Apple and Google during the shopping season which traditionally sees an increase in sales.

According to Bloomberg other analysts have echoed Intel's concerns stating that the operating system is fundamentally sound but lacks a wide range of robust applications and still has outstanding issues with drivers - the software that enables connectivity with hardware such as printers, scanners and cameras.

Research firm Gartner praised the software for offering a positive experience on touch screen devices but stated that it will struggle on the business desktop which is still heavily reliant on a keyboard and mouse for productivity.


Telecoms

Blackberry maker Research In Motion reported a narrower than expected loss for the second fiscal quarter which resulted in renewed enthusiasm and a 20% surge in share prices in after-hours trading on the day of the announcement. The implications are that the company has plentiful cash reserves to bolster the production of its new Blackberry 10 smart-phones which are due early next year.

In recent times the company has fallen far behind its rivals, primarily Apple and Google, in a market it once dominated. Research In Motion's net loss for the second quarter was US$235 million, better than the $518 million loss in the previous quarter, but still a steep drop from the net income of $329 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Shipments of BlackBerry handsets last quarter were 7.4 million, compared with 10.6 million a year earlier. The decline was reflected in the revenue figures; $2.9 billion for the last quarter, up from $2.8 billion in the first quarter, though down 31% from $4.2 billion a year ago. The company, which has now put all its digital chips on a win for the Blackberry 10, still faces an uphill struggle in an increasingly crowded market place.

Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.