By Martin J Young
May 16, 2007
SourceHUA HIN, Thailand - As the nations of Asia strive to compete with their Western counterparts in terms of economic prowess and technological advancement, a new battlefield is forming - and it lies in cyberspace. The battle is not between corporate giants for the next big deal, but between governments and the people fighting for their rights of freedom of speech online.
The Internet, since its birth in the mainstream in the late 1970s, has grown to become the most powerful communication tool the world has known. But with that power comes a danger - an overwhelming sense of control by some of the less democratic governments of the region.
Censorship of the Internet is becoming alarmingly commonplace among countries whose leadership depends on controlling the popular world view. Along with the desire to control comes a sense of fear and foreboding over the unknowns that lie in cyberspace, and more taxpayer's money is being spent on suppressing it today than ever before. One interesting statistic (from The Financial Times) is that eight of the top 10 most heavily censored countries are in Asia.
Myanmar tops the list, according to Business Week, with the military junta going to such extreme measures to control the 'Net as taking screenshots every five minutes from computers connected from Internet cafes (the only viable method of getting online in the country). US software is also used to block opposition websites, and with the junta owning all of the country's newspapers, radio and television, media operators have no option but to toe the line - or face lengthy jail terms.
North Korea is also pretty high up the list, with leader Kim Jong-il retaining absolute control over the Internet and rest of the country's media. Only a handful of citizens are permitted to go online, and when they do, they are faced with the choice of about 40 websites, most of which are loaded with government propaganda supplied by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The source of censorship technology and application for both of these countries is the king of Internet repression: China. Often described as the pioneer of Internet censorship, China devotes more resources than any other country to the restraint of online autonomy. The primary themes tend to be websites containing content on democracy, Taiwan and Tibet, and websites belonging to outlawed groups, such as Falungong. The Chinese leadership have even gone to the length of blocking websites that appear in Google search-results pages for terms such as "freedom", "revolution" and "democracy". The censors will often also block an entire site if only a small part of it is deemed to contain sensitive information.
A 30,000-strong "Internet police task force" constantly monitors the 'Net for critical comments appearing on forums, blogs and portals. The Chinese Edition of Asia Times Online often comes under the hammer of the people's censorship machine.
High-tech methods of control include the famous "Great Firewall of China", a common name given to the US$800 million Golden Shield Project owned by China's Ministry of Public Security. The project was started in 1998 with the primary goal of constructing a communication network and computer information system for police to improve their capability and efficiency. Content is blocked by the system's ability to prevent IP (Internet protocol) addresses being routed through with selective DNS (domain name server) poisoning, which fools a server into believing it has received authentic information. In short, the system acts as a large-scale filter with an entire database of blocked keywords, websites and addresses; it monitors all Web traffic in and out of China, including e-mail.
A relative newcomer to the Internet-suppressing nations of Asia is Thailand. With more than 40,000 websites blocked, the majority in the past six months, it is evident that the Thai authorities are looking to their neighbors for the way forward in controlling what people look at when they go online. Initially, Internet censorship in Thailand targeted adult websites and pornography, but in a rapidly increasing trend since the coup last September 19, more and more websites critical of the junta, the monarchy or the Buddhist religion have disappeared from public view within the kingdom.
By last October, the Thai Ministry of Information and Communication Technology had blocked 2,475 websites; by January 11 this number had risen to 13,435, a jump of more than 400%. According to the Freedom Against Censorship Thailand group, "2007 may well be the 21st century's '1984' in Thailand", as the MICT has been granted a budget of more than US$100 million for Internet censorship and control.
Websites regarding the sensitive political situation in Thailand's Muslim south are also blocked, including any in support of the Patani United Liberation Organization (PULO), a banned faction that works for a separate Muslim state, or similar organizations. Anything regarding Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister deposed in the September coup, also faces censorship, along with a number of Thai Web boards, including the popular Pantip.com, allowing political discussion. These now need to be heavily moderated if they want to remain online in the kingdom.
The case that made international news was the blocking of Google's video-sharing website YouTube in April for violation of the kingdom's strict lese majeste laws and publishing video clips deemed offensive to the revered monarchy.
Last week Reuters reported that YouTube had agreed to remove four clips that Thailand says insulted their king. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom received a letter from Google's senior lawyer, Kent Walker, stating that Thailand had sent YouTube management a list of 12 video clips it deemed offensive; six of those had already been removed by their creators. The Thai politician, who had already threatened to sue Google, said he no longer wished to take legal action but did not comment on unblocking the website in Thailand.
The Thai government is now attempting to track down and prosecute the individuals who uploaded the clips. Meanwhile, YouTube remained blocked in its entirety at the time of writing.
Thailand was ranked 107 out of 164 by Reporters Without Borders' worldwide press-freedom index 2005, a drop of 48 places from the previous ranking of 59th in 2004. Only last week the National Legislative Assembly approved a new Cyber Crime Bill that outlaws any attempt to get around government censors, usually carried out with the use of a proxy server that masks the IP address of the blacklisted website by making the request for its clients. Most proxy websites are also blocked in Thailand.
A number of Middle Eastern nations employ strict Internet censorship policies for religious dissent. These include Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Internet often comes under the sole control of countries with a "one-man show" dictatorial policy that churns out nothing but propaganda from the national media. President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan is a primary example according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2006, as was Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov, the president of Turkmenistan who died last December.
Human Rights Watch reports that Iran, which is undergoing an Internet boom, has seen a sharp rise in the popularity of blogging. However, an already long list of blocked websites and weblogs continues to grow. Many involve women's rights, opinion, and political or religious discussion. The Iranian government has been known to arrest bloggers for their comments on websites, and in 2004 and 2005, a number of Iranians were imprisoned for blogging, including Mojtaba Saminejad, then 23, who was given a two-year sentence for comments against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As technology advances and more Asian people gain access to the information superhighway, the work of government Internet censors is going to increase as new websites appear and people want to have their say. Censorship and repression will eventually breed more insurrection as Web surfers seek out ways to get their voices heard by the global audience.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.