I am now full of hate- no more Facebook

[Chuck Bao]

Facebook is now officially blocked in Thailand. I get this message:


Sorry for any inconvenience.
The page you are trying to visit has been blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

Sorry for any inconvenience, my ***, you limp bunch of tiny dicks. (now, I hope I don't get Soonerfans banned as well).

The Thai message boards say that it was imposed 4 hours ago. They are speculating that it is related to the Red Shirt protests and the Red Shirts were using Facebook to coordinate their rallies and supporters, especially with the anniversary of the 2006 military seizure of government that threw the country into the mess that it is in now.

I know some of you don't like Facebook, but you can't deny how popular it is globally and how effective it can be. In March and April this year, Facebook had the best updates on the Red Shirt protests since the TV and radio stations (the non-banned ones) and newspapers were forced to take the side of the government.

This is just another blow for freedom. I hope that the international media picks this up. It is pissing off a lot of people here who had nothing to do with political protests - they just wanted to share their latest cute baby and dog pics with friends. And, more pissed off people is not something we really needed at this time.

[olevetonahill]

I aint got a clue How they can Block just one part of the Innerwebs. Unless they get all over ALL the Providers :confused:

[MR2-Sooner86]

I aint got a clue How they can Block just one part of the Innerwebs. Unless they get all over ALL the Providers :confused:

They just block access to servers and such. What they did in Thailand is just block all internet providers from accessing Facebook's servers. Not that hard.

For instance in China if you search "Tiananmen Square" you won't find it on any servers or sites in country there so it has to go "outside" the country to get that information but the Chinese government has it blocked to where it can't come in country. That's why Google and Yahoo! get so much crap from people is that they comply with the Chinese government on stuff like that.

[Chuck Bao]

I aint got a clue How they can Block just one part of the Innerwebs. Unless they get all over ALL the Providers :confused:

They can very easily. For one, there has been a consolidation of the ISPs over the last 10 years and Thailand now has only 3-4 viable internet providers. Secondly, the government officially owns all of the international communication gateways - optic fiber or satellite. I am not sure what they can screen at the gateways, but it is still tremendous power in getting all of the ISPs to immediately comply or get their service slowed down where they lose business.

I am sure that there is a lot more drama and politics involved that we will never know about.

It is just a very sad day that the current government feels that this sort of action is needed. Yeah, Bangkok and most of Thailand are still under a "state of emergency", which is almost like martial law, and just plain stupid.

[Chuck Bao]

Thank goodness the ban on Facebook has been lifted this morning. Honestly, I was scared last night when the first re-direct of the URL went to something that said "court order". Then, the re-direct went into that lame message "sorry for the inconvenience". I very much appreciate that someone important finally came to his/her senses and stopped this madness.

[sooner59]

That sucks Chuck. We still got it in the good ole USA. We would welcome ya back for sure.

[Leroy Lizard]

When they say "Sorry for the Inconvenience," I bet they're not even sincere.

[Veritas]

If you need a pr()xy server, I can put one up for you Chuck.

[Chuck Bao]

If you need a pr()xy server, I can put one up for you Chuck.

Thanks for the offer, Veritas. I may have to take you up on that.

There was an article in one of the English-language Thai newspapers about a month ago about how the Red Shirts were effectively getting around the government's banning of websites by using overseas pr()xy servers. It was a great article with even a "how to do it" part. I was a bit surprised at first because this particular newspaper tends to be very slanted pro-government. But, I guess the vast majority of journalists, regardless of their political views, support the freedom to access information.

The other thing that makes me laughs out loud is that the Red Shirts are supposed to be poor, uneducated rural farmers. Maybe that is the case, but some of these country bumpkins must have some pretty bright kids.