Several Thai government Web sites went offline in a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on Wednesday, as citizens voiced their dissent with the government's plans to further control Thailand's Internet.
While DDOS attacks, which work to exceed a Web site's traffic capacity, are usually executed by a program or bot, Wednesday's attack was carried out by thousands of Thai citizens individually visiting and repeatedly refreshing government Web pages in a co-ordinated attack organised via Facebook.
The Web sites affected include that of the Thai ministry of information, communication and technology, and the main government Web site.
Rather than a cyber-attack, Information and communication technology minister Uttama Savanayana has referred to the event as a "symbolic act", while netizens call it an act of civil disobedience.
'The Great Firewall of Thailand'
Since seizing power in a coup in May 2014, Thailand's military government has amplified Thailand's rising Internet censorship, blocking Web sites and criminally charging critics who have spoken out online.
Netizens carried out the DDOS in protest of the government's 30 June order to restrict Thailand's Internet to access to a single, government-controlled gateway in order to more easily block "inappropriate Web sites" and control the flow of information from other countries into Thailand.
Currently, Thailand has about ten Internet gateways - a country's access points to the Internet - which are facilitated by both private and state organisations.
The proposal has been dubbed "The Great Firewall of Thailand" by critics, in reference to "The Great Firewall of China", a popular term for China's Internet censorship.
'The only door to the house'
An online petition protesting the proposal, which has gathered close to 150 000 signatures at the time of writing, refers to the proposed single gateway as "the only door to the house" (as translated from Thai) in explaining how restricting all Internet access to flow through one state-controlled gateway would give the government heightened control over citizens' Internet use.
Control over Thailand's only Internet gateway would not only make it easier for the government to bar access to Web sites it does not want citizens to access, says the petition.
A single gateway would greatly deplete foreign investors' confidence in the stability and security of Thailand's Internet and make foreign companies more reluctant to invest in Thailand, the petition continues. It would also threaten the sanctity of private trade secrets, it adds.
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