Debate rages over controversial single |Internet gateway plan
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THE government's idea of using a single gateway to regulate the Internet has sparked plenty of discussion. On Wednesday, netizens expressed their anger over the proposal by bringing down several government agency websites.
They urged Internet users to go to those websites, including the Information and Communication Technology Ministry’s, to refresh the homepages continuously by pushing the F5 button on computer keyboards.
The cyber attack drew even more attention to the matter. Some people have used a picture of coconut shell as a protest symbol against the proposal, while a petition against the idea at change.org has gathered over 140,000 signatures.
On Twitter, @supinya wrote: “What Thailand should focus more on than #SingleGateway: developing broadband for rural areas & continuing the debate on Internet governance.”
@nuling said: “Bt1 billion budget for the #SingleGateway should be better invested in education.”
@MrVop said: “If you set #SingleGateway for the whole country’s data [and] the system crashes, you won’t be able to connect with other countries. If a tsunami happens, where would you get the [tsunami] buoy-ETA [estimated time of arrival] information?”
@dr_mana wrote: “Not long ago, a military government fell over because of the ‘mobile phone mob’ [the mob led by the middle class]. Beware this time, [the military government] might fall over because of the ‘cyber mob’.”
@LastIFound wrote: “I have talked to the officers. I can now say I support the Single Gateway. However, that’s on the condition that there must be a practical mechanism to examine and prevent abuse by officers.”
@bkksnow said: “On the day that people know what the government is doing and value their freedom, we still see hope in our society.”
On Facebook, Chuladis Ratanakhumpaeng wrote: “It was like a mock test to see the readiness of the Thai government’s cyber warfare team. We have seen the result. Failed at almost all the agencies. Just by being attacked by the F5 button being pushed repeatedly, the websites crashed.”
To the question of whether the cyber attacks violated the Computer Crime Act as warned, Payak Chaikhan said: “I don’t think we did anything wrong. We just wanted to see the government’s information at the same time. When it is slow, we just pressed F5 to get the new information. If they don’t want us to go there, they should have told us to access it only during office hours.”
Viroj Santibunlert wrote: “What happened demonstrated that the Single Gateway does not work in practice. Netizens have shown the examples. If [the government] insists on doing it, I don’t know what to say.”
Kraikron Settakraikun wrote: “ The Single Gateway is not supposed to be done. That will be wasting tax money. But if the websites crashed just because of the F5, that sucks.”
Mate Matemate said: “The cases of the ICT Ministry’s, CAT’s and Internal Security Operations Commands’ websites should not be called crashes. They were not hacked but they were unavailable as too many Internet users accessed them at the same time.
“This is to demonstrate that in case of a limited gateway, they would not be able to accommodate heavy use. The government should learn from this and review its Single Gateway policy.
“Roughly, it should look into the control of information, people’s privacy, state agency’s [sic] monopoly of Internet services, and the quality and the stability of the service as well as the effect towards online businesses and e-commerce as well as other businesses.”
Not everyone agreed with the cyber attacks. Pawoot Pom Pongvitayapanu wrote: “I disagree with shooting down government agencies’ websites as a means of symbolic protest against [the] Single Gateway.
“I think it is too harsh and will make the government view Internet use in Thailand as being even more uncontrollable and that will be the reason for the state to manage [it].
“Please stop before it goes too far. It’s really not good. There are more ways to stop and oppose this scheme. Please calm down.”
Suwaschai Lee called on “gurus” of digital security to help think of solutions to the problems.
Sittiphol Phanvilai said: “I feel as if I am watching the Hunger Games. It was only a virtual sit-in. But later people began to enjoy using the DoS/DDos attack [causing denial of service and distributed denial of service] … The prior was not wrong, but the latter was a crime.
“Actually, shooting down websites does not prove anything about the efficiency of the Single Gateway, but it makes them [the government] have a good reason to use the Single Gateway.
“The crashing of websites only meant the websites’ infrastructure was not prepared to accommodate a lot of users at the same time … and over 50 per cent of websites in Thailand could face the same problem, as many websites will just crash if a lot of people go to the websites at the same time.
“On the positive side, it can raise awareness. People will talk about it. But burning will cause smoke, so be prepared to handle the result. From my calculation, the cons [negative consequences] will be more than the pros [positives].”
