The Thai police has threaten to charge attackers of government websites to protest the single internet gateway plan with the computer crime law.
At around 6 pm on Wednesday, 30 September 2015, www.mict.co.th, an official website of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT), went down after internet users who are against the Thai authorities’ proposal to reduce multiple internet gateways, attacked the website.
On the same night, www.thaigov.co.th, a website of the government house, and www.mof.co.th, a Ministry of Finance’s website, also went down after similar online attack by the same group of anti-single gateway netizens.
The attack was launched after those against the single gateway plan shared an online campaign which went viral on the internet, calling on anti-single gateway netizens to attack the government websites at 10 pm on Wednesday, with MICT website being the first target. The web, however, went down several hours before the scheduled attack.
After the attack, Thairath News reported that the Crime Suppression Division of the Thai Police announced that attackers of the government websites could be charged under Article 10 of the 2007 Computer Crime Act for such action.
The police added that they are capable of tracking down the identities of people who took part in the online attack.
In brief, Article 10 of the Computer Crime Code stipulates that any person who illegally commits any act that causes the working of a third party's computer system to be suspended, delayed, hindered or disrupted to the extent that the computer system fails to operate normally shall be subject to imprisonment for no longer than five years or a fine of not more than one hundred thousand baht or both.
The cabinet under Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, last month gave the green light to the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) and relevant agencies to push ahead with the process to implement a single gateway internet system before the end of the 2015 budget year.
The plan to reduce the number of internet gateways was initially proposed by Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang, the chief of the Royal Thai Police, in June 2015. He reasoned that through a single gateway system, it will be much easier for the state authorities to monitor, filter, delete, and intercept information on the internet that could be deemed inappropriate.
Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network (TNN), an Internet freedom advocacy group, told Prachatai that the idea to reduce the internet gateways to a single one was proposed only a few days after the 2014 coup d’état by the ex-MICT Permanent Secretary.
He mentioned that the idea was formulated under the logic that Thai people at present use social media inappropriately without control.
“We can see that this sort of idea came together with the coup d’état,” said Arthit.