In an effort to keep Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej on good terms with Thai citizens, the King launched a website, protecttheking.net on February 5, 2009, which urges people to inform him through the site about anyone who is criticizing the monarchy
According to the BBC article on the front page of protectheking.net it describes the purpose of the site as a means for Thai people to show their loyalty to the king by protecting him from what it calls misunderstandings about him.
With Thai internet users being urged to show their loyalty to the king, Reporters Without Borders said in the article New government plans to step up online censorship., “By trying to protect the king’s image, the government is actually doing it harm.”
In addition to creating a website an internet security centre to co-ordinate with protecttheking.net was established, and launched the same day, to block any websites deemed offensive to the monarchy.
Although the blocking of many websites is nothing new for the citizens of Thailand the work of banning sites has accelerated with the new centre. In a recent article by the BBC, the first day of launching the website and security centre, the site managed to block 4,818 websites in its first 24 hours of operation. These bans that are being put on the internet have created a great concern among many, which include Thai citizens, government officials and reporters.
By Lisa Schaffer (Thailand)
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