Mailing List Archive: Wikipedia: Foundation

Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king

Index | Next | Previous | View Threaded

waerth at asianet

Nov 9, 2008, 10:59 PM

Post #1 of 11 (4143 views)
Permalink

Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king

It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/

W

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

poeloq at gmail

Nov 10, 2008, 1:53 AM

Post #2 of 11 (4002 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

Can anybody confirm this?

Ian

On 11/10/08, Waerth <waerth [at] asianet> wrote:
> It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
> in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
> the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/
>
> W
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l [at] lists
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>

--
Sent from my mobile device

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

jayvdb at gmail

Nov 10, 2008, 4:23 AM

Post #3 of 11 (3995 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 8:53 PM, Ian A. Holton <poeloq [at] gmail> wrote:
> Can anybody confirm this?

En.wp user Rlevse tells me that this block has been on the king's
article for a few weeks now.

--
John V

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

waerth at asianet

Nov 10, 2008, 4:31 AM

Post #4 of 11 (4002 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

I life in Thailand and I have a Thai Internet provider and I have been a
Wikimedian for over 5 years ..... is my word not good enough for ya?

W

> Can anybody confirm this?
>
> Ian
>
> On 11/10/08, Waerth <waerth [at] asianet> wrote:
>
>> It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
>> in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
>> the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/
>>
>> W
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> foundation-l mailing list
>> foundation-l [at] lists
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
>>
>
>

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

thomas.dalton at gmail

Nov 10, 2008, 4:47 AM

Post #5 of 11 (4004 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

2008/11/10 Waerth <waerth [at] asianet>:
> I life in Thailand and I have a Thai Internet provider and I have been a
> Wikimedian for over 5 years ..... is my word not good enough for ya?

That you can't access it doesn't necessarily mean the government has
blocked it (although that would seem the most likely explanation).
Confirmation that it has been intentionally blocked by the government
would be good, although I'm not sure you'll find any - it's not the
kind of thing governments make official statements about.

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

geniice at gmail

Nov 10, 2008, 6:56 AM

Post #6 of 11 (3987 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

2008/11/10 Waerth <waerth [at] asianet>:
> It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
> in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
> the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/
>
> W

I was wondering when that would happen. Does it also block
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej ?

--
geni

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

smolensk at eunet

Nov 10, 2008, 7:05 AM

Post #7 of 11 (3998 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

On Monday 10 November 2008 13:31:01 Waerth wrote:
> I life in Thailand and I have a Thai Internet provider and I have been a
> Wikimedian for over 5 years ..... is my word not good enough for ya?

It's not that you aren't trusted, but it could be limited to your provider or
similar, so it's always better to have additional confirmation.

> > Can anybody confirm this?
> >
> > Ian
> >
> > On 11/10/08, Waerth <waerth [at] asianet> wrote:
> >> It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
> >> in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
> >> the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Platonides at gmail

Nov 10, 2008, 7:12 AM

Post #8 of 11 (3972 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

geni wrote:
> 2008/11/10 Waerth:
>> It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
>> in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
>> the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/
>>
>> W
>
> I was wondering when that would happen. Does it also block
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej ?

It can't block just
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej
They would need to blacklist the whole secure server.

What it may not be blocking are
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bhumibol_Adulyadej or
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=250835396

For being a goverment, they could at least improve the page they're
redirecting people to. An 'Unconfigured IIS' page, no dns on other
domain sections. :/

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

geniice at gmail

Nov 10, 2008, 7:36 AM

Post #9 of 11 (4001 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

2008/11/10 Platonides <Platonides [at] gmail>:
> For being a goverment, they could at least improve the page they're
> redirecting people to. An 'Unconfigured IIS' page, no dns on other
> domain sections. :/

Slight problem with the being a government line. With the current
issues there is an open question what body is actually functioning as
the government at the moment.

--
geni

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

dmcdevit at cox

Nov 10, 2008, 2:59 PM

Post #10 of 11 (3975 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

Ian A. Holton wrote:
> Can anybody confirm this?
>
> Ian
>
> On 11/10/08, Waerth <waerth [at] asianet> wrote:
>
>> It seems that the Thai government has decided to block wikipedia's page
>> in English about the King .... . If going there by interwiki link from
>> the Dutch wikipedia I end up here: http://w3.mict.go.th/
>>
>> W

I did some research to see if anyone else is reporting this, and it
seems that others are experiencing the same problem, but it has not yet
made the news (in reference to Wikipedia's block explicitly).The Freedom
Against Censorship Thailand blog reports that it has been blocked since
at least October 1, and though I can't read the Thai sites they cite, it
seems pretty well independently verified.
<http://facthai.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/wikipedia-blocked-by-some-thai-isps-fact-exclusive/>

Thailand enforces a lese majeste law, which means people may be
prosecuted for "insulting" the king
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se_majest%C3%A9#Thailand). As a
result, Thailand has a rather active internet censorship program that
has become more active during the recent political crisis
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7696101.stm>. (Incidentally,
the author of that article, BBC's Thailand correspondent, was himself
under investigation earlier this year, accused of insulting the king:
<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/08/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-BBC.php>.)

It seems that several media agencies, like BBC, reported the recent
surge in censorship, but none of them mention Wikipedia explicitly,
while it is likely that it was one of the sites targeted in the October
crackdown. Incidentally, last year's brief blocking of YouTube by
Thailand
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Thailand#YouTube_controversy) led
to much greater international media scrutiny, and it seems likely that
if it continues, Wikipedia's block may yet be newsworthy, especially
since unlike the inflammatory YouTube videos, the Wikipedia article
seems relatively neutral.

Dominic

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

mbimmler at gmail

Nov 11, 2008, 12:29 AM

Post #11 of 11 (3979 views)
Permalink

Re: Thai government blocks English wikipedia page about the king [In reply to]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 11:59 PM, Dominic <dmcdevit [at] cox> wrote:

> It seems that several media agencies, like BBC, reported the recent
> surge in censorship, but none of them mention Wikipedia explicitly,
> while it is likely that it was one of the sites targeted in the October
> crackdown.

Guardian Weekly, print edition November 7th, page 2:
"Firewall for a king:
Thailand is to build a national internet firewall to block websites
deemed insulting to the monarchy. The move appears to be the result of
pressure on the government from the military to stamp out criticism of
King Bhumibol Adulyadej".

Right, this does not mention Wikipedia explicitly, but I think we can
take it nearly for granted that the access problems described by
Waerth are related to this. I think we can't expect a press notice
listing all the blocked sites ;-)

Michael

--
Michael Bimmler
mbimmler [at] gmail

_______________________________________________
foundation-l mailing list
foundation-l [at] lists
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Index | Next | Previous | View Threaded

Interested in having your list archived? Contact Gossamer Threads