GayThailand.com Blocked within Thailand

[TotallyOz]

It seems we have been taken under by the Cyber Inspector in Thailand.

[Guest dudey]

i'm traveling to thailand.

i need to manage gay related sites while traveling.

The government controls internet access in thailand?

that would discourage my desire of even going there at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems we have been taken under by the Cyber Inspector in Thailand.

[Guest GayPattayan]

I've been able to reach gaythailand.com without use of a proxy both last night (Saturday) and today (Sunday), from within Thailand. Hopefully the cyber blockage has ended, or, as happened with Sawatdee, it may be a "floating ' blockage that may return almost any time. "Hit and miss" can be as disruptive as total blockage, in many cases. But at least for now, I am on line, from within Thailand, using my regular internet service provider within Thailand. Here's hoping the cyber blockage incident has ended -- but I suspect that is an unrealistic hope.

 

G.P.

 

ADDDENDUM: It didn't last long! After viewing one or two other messages, all of a sudden I got the dreaded notice of blockage by the Cyber Inspector. I had to sign off, and then sign back on using a different browser, but still same internet service provider. Probably can't count on staying on long.

 

Too bad. It is hard to believe that the Kingdom of Thailand tolerates this when the constitution is so clear on freedom of speech and freedom of the press!

 

G.P.

[Gaybutton]

ADDDENDUM: It didn't last long! After viewing one or two other messages, all of a sudden I got the dreaded notice of blockage by the Cyber Inspector. I had to sign off, and then sign back on using a different browser, but still same internet service provider. Probably can't count on staying on long.

 

Too bad. It is hard to believe that the Kingdom of Thailand tolerates this when the constitution is so clear on freedom of speech and freedom of the press!

 

G.P.

 

As it was before I took my own web site down, sometimes you could get on and sometimes you couldn't. On my web site that lasted about two weeks and then it was impossible to get on at all. Even proxy servers were being blocked.

 

I hope Gaythailand can get unblocked or at least get some answers. I still would like to know why these sites are being blocked and who, specifically, is doing the blocking. Somebody had to be the one who decided to block these web sites.

 

Perhaps fortunately for Gaythailand, but unfortunately for other sites that are being blocked, he may be able to resolve the problem for this web site, but Thailand doesn't have class action lawsuits, so even a positive outcome will apply only to this web site.

 

I still would like to meet face-to-face with whoever it is that is responsible for blocking my web site. I would like to hear a face-to-face explanation as to why my web site was blocked, especially since such blocking is illegal in Thailand. I want to hear why my web site was "not good for Thai people" while many Thai web sites that deal in personal ads, even pornographic personal ads, and other forms of pornography go merrily along with no blocking.

 

I can't prove it and it might just be coincidence, but has anyone noticed that every one of the blocked web sites are "farang" owned? As far as I know not any Thai owned web sites are blocked, despite the strong sexual and pornographic content. How much do you want to bet that if I reinstated my web site as a Thai owned web site, then there would be no blocking?

 

To me, this whole thing is another form of the famous Thai logic. My web site provided news, information, and a message board. Many "farang" tourists came to Thailand, wallets filled with cash, precisely because of my web site. My web site was entirely in English and directed toward foreign tourists. I really would like to hear, directly from whoever it was that was responsible for blocking my web site, how that was "not good for Thai people." How many Thai people would have even been aware of my web site, let alone have been able to read it? I wonder if whoever is responsible for blocking these web sites ever actually sat down and read any of them. I would also like to hear why my site, along with all the other sites that have been blocked, were given no advance notification of any kind that they would be blocked and no opportunity to correct whatever the "evil" was that we were doing, to the satisfaction of Thai authorities.

 

Why do I have a feeling I'll never hear the answers to those questions and never will meet the person responsible for this blocking?

[Guest stef]

Dear Gaybutton,

I feel the same way as you do. I don't think we will easily find out who causes those blocks and why such things are happening.

The Thai ownership of a website might be a very good point when I think about it.

Let's see what goes on from here....

Stef

 

[Gaybutton]

Dear Gaybutton,

I feel the same way as you do. I don't think we will easily find out who causes those blocks and why such things are happening.

The Thai ownership of a website might be a very good point when I think about it.

Let's see what goes on from here....

Stef

 

I hope that at least something can be resolved with a positive outcome for the blocked sites. I know of no valid reason why my web site was blocked and I know of no valid reason why this web site is being blocked, especially when compared to the content on Thai owned web sites that are not blocked.

 

If these sites are "bad for Thai people," then I would like to know what it is about these sites that constitutes the "bad" part. I would also like to know who decided that and upon what basis. Not only were we never notified, but I have not been able to find any kind of criteria, whether on the Internet or elsewhere, that lists what is acceptable and what is not.

 

I've been wrong about a great many things in my life, but I think I'm right when I point out that the blocked web sites are all "farang" owned. If that is true, then why? Why would the Thai authorities, if indeed these sites really were blocked by Thai authorities, care about whether the site is "farang" owned or not? I can't make any sense out of it.

[bkkguy]

I've been wrong about a great many things in my life, but I think I'm right when I point out that the blocked web sites are all "farang" owned.

 

and you are wrong about this as well - may thai sites have been blocked

 

many falung sites remain unbocked, and some of these are far worse than some of the blocked sites, and many thai sites far worse remain unblocked as well - as with any policy it is impossible to implement 100% immediately, particiularly when two or three authorities are involved and it requires co-operation from a number of other businesses and organisations! but some site have been able to get the block lifted

 

and not all proxies are being blocked, only a small number are!

 

bkkguy

 

 

 

[Guest stef]

and you are wrong about this as well - may thai sites have been blocked

 

many falung sites remain unbocked, and some of these are far worse than some of the blocked sites, and many thai sites far worse remain unblocked as well - as with any policy it is impossible to implement 100% immediately, particiularly when two or three authorities are involved and it requires co-operation from a number of other businesses and organisations! but some site have been able to get the block lifted

 

and not all proxies are being blocked, only a small number are!

 

bkkguy

 

 

Well if this is true, then where is the logic ? As Gaybutton's website did not have a bad bone in his site , neither on http://www.gaythailand.com

I bet it is the forums : Otherwise why Sawatdee Gay Thailand forum would have been blocked ? But again I did not see a bad thing there either.

You are talking about several authorities here ? It explains why things are on and off about the blocks. But as I don't speak Thai ( still learning ) and as I can't for sure read Thai, I have no way to understand those site inspectors as all is in THAI. Let's hope things will get better as right now this Block from the Thai Government is really a bad thing for Thai people looking for a better life and looking for happiness.

Many foreigners are looking and talking to people here in Thailand.

I have received hundred's of demands from Thai boys wondering "What do to" cause they can't read their messages.... So Sad.....

[Gaybutton]

I don't dispute that Thai owned sites may be blocked if Bkkguy says so, but I haven't seen any. None of the Thai owned sites that I look at have been blocked. Can you point out a few of the Thai owned sites that are blocked?

 

In any case, whether Thai owned sites are also being blocked or not, that doesn't change the fact that, at least according to my Thai attorney, such blocking is illegal in the first place. I still want to know who is responsible for it and I would still like the answers to my other questions, mainly who decides these sites should be blocked and why.

[bkkguy]

Can you point out a few of the Thai owned sites that are blocked?

 

I have not maintained a list but over the last six months or so any stroll through the link lists on most of the Thai sites always produced a regular crop of blocked sites - many re-appeared with new names/IP addresses and many with password protection on the raunchy content or tidied up their image

 

bkkguy

 

[bkkguy]

Well if this is true, then where is the logic ? As Gaybutton's website did not have a bad bone in his site , neither on http://www.gaythailand.com

 

I could image that from a Thai censor's perspective the gaybutton site was a how-to guide for gay sex tourists coming to Pattaya to have sex with prostitutes they off from go-go bars - hardly an image they want to promote to the world, and the forum often had articles very critical of the government if they bothered to read that far

 

also from a Thai censor's perspective a quick glance at the gaythailand.com home page reveals lots of naked flesh and the whole site seems geared towards falung having casual sex with Thais - something certainly not to be encouraged

 

compare that to the front page of (the currently unblocked) thailandout.com for example and the initial impression is very different (even if overall the content is similar) - little naked flesh, a portal site covering many aspects of gay scene in depth which incidently happens to a section for Thai guys to meet up and get to know each other

 

I bet it is the forums : Otherwise why Sawatdee Gay Thailand forum would have been blocked ? But again I did not see a bad thing there either.

 

but you don't "see" things from the government's perspective!

 

again most of the discussion on the forums/blogs/photo galleries is similar in theme to gaybutton's content, but the ban came fairly soon after they started hosting syndicated gay asian galleries and set up their third party asian porn cinema...

 

compare that to for example thaivisa.com (currently unblocked) where there is one small gay forum amongst hundreds of others and no asian porn!

 

I don't say I agree with or support these blocks and I don't claim to be an expert on Thai logic but I don't know that I find some of blocks and exceptions that surprising!

 

bkkguy

 

 

 

[Guest Hedda]

There is simply no way to rationalize the blocking of sites that has occurred here within Thailand, unless you acknowledge that the Thais have always pursued a double standard about the existence of a vast commercial sex industry here. Officially, it doesn't exist, or it's viewed as something that needs to be discouraged.

 

Regulars here tend to forget that prostitutiion is technically as illegal in Pattaya as it is in London or New York. The Thais may be prepared to tolerate it as a economic necessity at this point in their development, but that doesn't mean that they don't wish to present an entirely different face about it to the world. That's why they can tolerate much of 'anything goes" in the alleys of Patpong, but then block internet sites which publicly seek to discuss or popularlize

Thailand as the center of a thriving commercial sex industry.

 

Obviously, it's regrettable when any government feels it appropriate to restrain the expression of thoughts over the internet, especially when such double and possibly hypocritical standards appear to apply. But let's face it, sites which disucss the availabiity and details of commercial sex here with young Thais, which most gay sites routinely do, are technically flaunting Thai law.

 

I dare to guess that most readers here would not find anything objectionable in blocking sites that appear devoted to fostering pedophilia. Why then should another standard apply when censors take the axe to sites that are devoted to discussing the details of a commercial sex scene which is just as illicit in strict legal terms as pedophilia.

 

Obviously, most westerners would prefer to see the government keep its hand off this arrea of interest when only consenting adults are involved. As a minimum, if and when censorship or outright blocking is attempted, it certainly should be done with notice and due process, something that seems noticeably absent in the current wave of blocking sites here in Thailand. That aspect of blocking is to me the most troubling aspect of the matter, since it invites faceless bureaucrats to wield arbitrary power at everyone's expense, be they farang or thai.

[khaolakguy]

I have received hundred's of demands from Thai boys wondering "What do to" cause they can't read their messages.... So Sad.....

 

Wow Stef, you have certainly been getting around. Are these hundreds of boys just from this site?

 

[Guest stef]

Wow Stef, you have certainly been getting around. Are these hundreds of boys just from this site?

Not really sure if I could handle so much boys on my own. But hey why not ? I should try one day.

To be clear with my last message, all messages sent to administrator and webmaster are sent to my email account. So I did all the complains about not being able to access the site.

 

[Guest catawampuscat]

unbanned... ban lifted for those of us in Thailand!!! Congrats to Stef and GayThailand...

hope all continues well.. I was just blocked on proxy trying to access SGF and hope this is

temporary.. We can all use all the resources available...