BANGKOK — The Thai government’s crackdown on online adult content, noticed yesterday by users trying to access Pornhub from the Southeast Asian nation, has been confirmed by the authorities, who also said the new ban — effected as the country is reeling from street protests and calls for the military party to step down — involves 190 websites.
As XBIZ reported yesterday, closure orders signed by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, and citing the Computer Crime Act of 2007, appeared on “pornhub.com” when accessed from Thailand.
The local press cited a "directive issued to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society last week by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan [which] comes after a Thai court in mid-October warned the government that it may not close mass media news outlets which are protected under provisions of the constitution.”
Reuters reported today that Digital Minister Puttipong Punnakanta said “that the block was part of efforts to restrict access to porn and gambling websites, which were illegal under the country's cybercrime law.”
Punnakanta also revealed that the ban involved 190 sites, including Pornhub.
Browsers from Thailand can still presumably access the banned sites through a VPN.
#HornyPower Backlash
But Thailand-based internet users took to social media to protest this latest crackdown on freedom of expression by the embattled regime, a party created by the same military rulers who took over the Thai government after a 2014 coup.
According to today’s Reuters report, “a hashtag that translates as #HornyPower is trending on Thai Twitter following the Pornhub block, accompanied by comments or memes that the government could face greater opposition now beyond the protesters.”
The hashtag #SavePornhub also trended in Thailand since the announcement.
"If someone doesn't hate the current military government, now they probably do," Twitter user Jirawat Punnawat commented.
Emilie Pradichit, director of the digital rights NGO Manushya Foundation, told Reuters the ruling party’s broad censorship decision showed the world that Thailand has become "a land of digital dictatorship, with conservatives in power trying to control what young people can watch, can say and can do online."