Inspired by China, Thailand setting up its own Great Firewall

Thailand’s unelected junta has moved a major step closer to setting up a China-style Great Firewall that could block and censor websites or apps. A proposal to set up sophisticated and streamlined web censorship was discovered yesterday by a Thai citizen while looking through months-old cabinet resolutions in the official government repository, writes Bangkok-based reporter Don Sambandaraksa.

The edict from General Prayuth’s cabinet instructs 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,” writes Don on TelecomAsia. A further order gave until September 4 for the agencies to suggest laws that need to be amended to make way for authorities to order web blocks.

See: Instagram blocked in China as democracy reform protests sweep Hong Kong

Legalizing censorship

Social media users in Thailand reacted swiftly to the leaked edict:

Thai cabinet wants MICT to create a single gateway for Thailand to block access to sites and control information flow http://t.co/KQ2XCESD9c

— Prem Sichanugrist (@sikachu) September 22, 2015

Yes. Thailand is about to have The Great Firewall just like China, except it will be shittier and corrupted as hell https://t.co/Lqj7jj4E7i

— Prem Sichanugrist (@sikachu) September 22, 2015

Sensitive news