The government is warning groups opposed to the new Computer Crimes Act to be careful since scheduled protests may be in violation of the law. The government collected photographic evidence of participants at rallies in the Victory Monument and the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center (BACC) areas yesterday.
At BACC, students from Chulalongkorn and Ramkhamhaeng who called themselves FIST (Free Internet Society of Thailand) held protest placards which read: “Free Internet”, “Invasion of Privacy” and “We say no to internet censorship.”
Government Spokesman Lt. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that such demonstrations might be illegal as they could be seen as causing a disturbance and bringing disorder to society. The spokesman asked participants to reconsider joining protests, reported Thai News Bureau.
“The authorities have prepared measures to handle this protest, by taking images of participants and authorising further action according to international standards. I must clearly advise that the opponents of the Computer Crimes Law are crossing the line and stirring up disorder by violating the law and establishing themselves as hackers,” said the spokesman.
The government spokesman confirmed that failed attempts had been made by some groups to hack information from the authorities, pointing out that these actions are considered cyber threats which are what led to the revision of the Computer Crimes Act in the first place. He also denied any information was stolen from the Immigration Bureau system, as the system is isolated from the internet, along with the databases of the Immigration Bureau, the Customs Department, security agencies, airports, and airlines, for security purposes.
He said the government would like to clarify that there will be no implementation of a single gateway system as Thailand already has many gateways connecting a tremendous amount of data, rendering it impossible for all connections to be made via a single source; it would also go against the government’s intention to push the country towards its Thailand 4.0 goal that will require backup gateways to prevent connection failures.
On the topic of access limitations to some websites, he said all countries offer advice to their citizens saying which websites are a security risk, but restriction of access would depend on each internet provider which is tasked with protecting their customers.
He further elaborated that a website blocking process might be considered by the government in order to inspect the traffic of connections considered illegal, inappropriate, or posing a threat to security and economic development. The spokesman pointed out that such a blocking order itself must be approved by a 9-member panel and the court, insisting that snatching private data is not what the government intends to do.
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