If you keep up with my blog, you'll know that I've lived in Thailand and now Indonesia this past year. Over all, I feel more free than when living in the US and definitely have less concern about the powers of the State.
One thing I have noticed tho, is that these Asian governmental busybodies like to play the role of online big brother and protect you from evil websites.
Now, everyone has heard of the "Great Firewall of China", but what about other, smaller countries.
Indonesia's Censorship
Here's a list of a few notable websites that the all wise, humble and moral government of Indonesia has decided to block.
Reddit - the self-proclaimed Front Page of the Internet at the same time as Vimeo, in May 2014.
Netflix - broadcasts many shows that depict nudity, violence and drug use...frowned upon by the gov
Vimeo - a site-wide ban was given to the popular video hosting/sharing site because of potential videos that depicted pornography.
Imgur - again, porn issues, but much of the site-wide ban has been removed and only particular pages are still banned.
Youtube - while the site-wide ban was also lifted, the government pays close attention to various channels which they feel is too adult oriented.
Redtube, Youporn, etc - porn...i think u get it now.
In 2017, Telegram was blocked, as it was being used to spread "radical and terrorist propaganda", but was then unblocked after several agreements to the government.
Thailand censorship
While there's no official list, 34,411 web sites were blocked by government agencies which cited the following reasons (from wiki):
- lèse majesté content (content that defames, insults, threatens, or is unflattering to the King
- pornography,
- sale of sex equipment,
- threats to national security, which includes criticisms of the king, government or military,
- illegal products and services,
- copyright infringement,
- illegal gambling
Of course you can get around nearly all of this by using a simple, cheap VPN. Suppressing the freedom of speech will not work well for these despots in the long run.
What country are you from? Does your government actively censor your online experience? Leave it in the comments!
Stay free amigos,
Ashe
