The Internet Content Regulation by the Government of Thailand

• In Event: The Politics of Moderation

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to study and analyze the concepts and ideas of the governance of the Internet contents through its governing mechanism, the state’s actions in relation to the regulatory body of the Internet, both directly and indirectly, and 2) to predict trends and guidelines in governing the Internet contents in the future. This study employed a qualitative research based on the information from documentary and fieldwork research using in-depth interviews. The samples were selected by purposive random sampling method with four groups of key informants: 1) representatives of governmental regulator 2) the Internet users, mass media, auditors in civil society organizations 3) the Internet Service Providers and social media, and 4) academic experts on the Internet. The analysis is descriptive.
The research results found that the state employed various strict governing mechanisms to surveil and monitor the Internet contents by using laws and indirect regulations that instigate political conflicts that shift political violence from the real world to cyberspace. From 2005- 2020, the surveillance of the Internet contents has emphasized on several issues such as the stability of the government, the military junta, the state of emergency, and lèse-majesté law. However, there has been increasing awareness on freedom of expression and the use of the Internet among Thai public. Such governing mechanisms affect people’s rights and freedom and may have triggered people’s sense of political efficacy and violent reactions. It was shown that previous governance mechanisms did not succeed. I suggested that the government should change the ideas and approaches about the Internet governance to keep up with changing social and political conditions. The political movement in the year 2020 reflected the movement of people. Unlike past political movements in Thailand, the younger generation who has the idea of global citizenship has changed the form of cyber movement by employing social media to expand their ideology in social movements. However, the Thai state still tried to intervene these new movements with a new bureaucratic mechanism infused by Thai nationalist ideology. The concepts and ideas of the Internet content regulation by the Thai state has five key elements:(1) bureaucratic-state polity (2) law (3) market (4) social norms and (5) the Internet architecture/structure in Thailand. All these five elements are regulatory mechanisms by themselves. They create limitations and affect people in several ways. They may reinforce each other or reduce the effectiveness of each other. As a result, the Internet in Thailand cannot be a public sphere for democratization.

Author

• Yuttaporn Issarachai, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University