martes, 4 de agosto de 2009

This is for Suwicha Thakhor - thaiman8


thaiman8 was the Youtube channel used by Suwicha Thakhor to upload videos mocking the Thai king onto the internet. Thai police discovered his IP address and traced it to his home computer. Police then burst into Suwicha's home where his family slept, and charged him with "insulting" the Thai king.

Suwicha stands out from ordinary Thais because he dared to act defiantly against the tyranny that has become lese majeste law, knowing that he could be arrested and sent to prison. His only mistake was to use his home computer, which he kept in his bedroom.

According to The Economist magazine, "dozens" of Thai bloggers have now been arrested for making comments on chatboards and forums deemed "insulting" to the king of Thailand. Many, after using home computers or computers at their place of work.

The tactics used by lese majeste agents vary: sometimes legal, sometimes illegal. They often write "official" letters on fancy letterhead paper to unsuspecting web masters, falsely claiming to represent the Thai government. In my case, shadowy figures requested my personal details from Spanish police insinuating that I was "wanted" in Thailand for "pending crimes". Meaning lese majeste.

The moral of the story is NEVER post political comments from a personal computer that can be traced directly to you, but do keep posting comments. As for webmasters, remember, you are under no obligation to give Thai lese majeste agents IP addresses without a court order. So please, web masters, protect your users from these lese majeste fanatics and don't give out any information.

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