Six civil organizations denounced the eight Digital Economy bills, recently approved by the junta, saying they are national security bills in disguise and that the bill will pave the way for state monopoly of telecommunication businesses.
Six civil organizations, including Thai Netizen Network, FTA Watch, Foundation for Community Education Media (FCEM), Green World Foundation, People’s Media Development Institute, and Thailand Association for the Blind (TAB) issued a joint statement against the junta cabinet’s approval of eight bills on digital economy on Wednesday.
.Last week, the junta’s cabinet approved in principles of the eight proposed bills which were claimed to prepare Thailand for the “digital economy”. The groups said they were in fact designed to restructure and tighten control of telecommunications and internet in Thailand.
The junta-appointed parliament earlier passed the law to change the title of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES). The MDES will be the main agency overseeing the “digital economy.”
The proposed bills in the series involve the establishment of the state organization to deal with all kinds of electronic transactions and the creation of National Committee for Cyber Security, and organization which can conduct mass surveillance on every means of communication in the name of “national security”.
Despite the junta’s rhetoric that the bills would fasten the phase of digital economic development of the country, the six rights groups stated that the real purposes of these bills are only for tightening up the national security and the state monopoly over telecommunication resources, said the statement of the groups.
The junta also attempted to reduce participation of civil society by cutting the quotas of civil society representatives in the committees to be established under the bills and instead increase the quotas of government officials representatives, the groups said.
Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network, gave example of this worrying trend. He said in the proposed Protection of Personal Information Bill, which has been drafted for several years, three representatives from the related civil society to be appointed as Committee on Protection of Personal Information. The junta cut the quotas of the civil society and replace with representatives from national security agencies.
There is also no mechanism to ensure transparency and no guarantee that the bills would benefit the marginalised groups of Thai society, said Arthit, adding that the bills obviously do not include mechanisms to protect human rights and consumer rights.
The group added that instead of bringing the progress to the digital economy, the bills would bring about the opposite.
“The content of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) Bill is meant to draw back the [satellite] frequencies under the control of the state and military, which is similar to what it had been prior to the enactment of the 1997 Constitution,” stated the joint statement.
The group stated that they will submit petition to the Nation Reform Council (NRC) and the Council of State to point out the flaws of the Digital Economy bills.
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