FACT - Freedom Against Censorship Thailand

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand
16^th November 2006

Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO & Board of Directors
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
USA

Do no evil…

An Open Letter to Google.com

Dear Googlies,

We have read here in Thailand that the Thai military coup government’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has approached Google Thailand with some requests.

According to the press, these requests are:

1) That Google Thailand and Google worldwide blocked its cached webpages of the Thai government’s choosing from Thai Internet users. If this proves to be unfeasible, the Thai government’s request to Google Thailand and Google worldwide to block ALL Google’s cached webpages from Thai Internet users.

2) That Google block specific webpages and domains of the Thai government’s choosing by a) keyword, b) URL, c) IP address, and/or d) DNS server.

If we remember correctly, this is precisely the same request to which Google acceded in China. We recognise that Google’s decision to enable web-blocking in China may have been partly a business decision. However, we need to point out that there are no such pressing business considerations for any potential Thai market.

We would like to point out to you that there is no Internet law in Thailand. All blocking has been done illegally and in secret since 2002 despite the fact that this censorship is funded by Thai taxpayers.

To keep you informed of our situation, Thailand currently blocks at least 35,000 websites. Among these are all anonymous proxy servers and pages from the BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Age (Melbourne), Amazon.com, Amazon UK, and Yale University. Reporters without Borders ranks 167 countries on the basis of their press freedom. Thailand was No. 59 in 2004 and had dropped to No. 107 by 2005.

Google’s corporate, and we would hope personal, motto is “Do no evil.” Don’t define this too literally: it also means “Don’t facilitate evil.”

Censorship is evil, irregardless of whether or not it happens to be legal. Google’s strength is in helping to create a fully-informed humanity capable of making its own individual decision as to right and wrong.

We need education and progress and development in Thailand, not a society of buffaloes.

Please, Google, do not cave in to the censorship requests of the Thai government.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

FREEDOM AGAINST CENSORSHIP THAILAND

1. Roby Alampay, Southeast Asian Press Alliance
2. Arthit Suriyawongkul, Individual
3. Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, Thammasat University
4. Dr. Chintana Sandilands, Australian National University
5. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai
6. Paola Di Maio, Researcher
7. Easterwood Press, Canada
8. Gawin Chutima, Thai NGOs
9. Dr. Giles Ungpakorn, Chulalongkorn University
10. C.J . Hinke, Ruean Panya
11. Isriya Paireepairit, Kasetsart University
12. Dr. Jittat Fakcharoenphol, Kasetsart University
13. Junya Yimprasert, Thai Labour Organisation
14. Kanet Kongsaiya, Norway
15. Dr. Kasian Tejapira, Thammasat University
16. M.J. Kim, Media Act, South Korea
17. Jan McGirk, Open Democracy
18. Dr. Nidhi Eoseewong, Midnight University
19. Dr. Pirongrong Ramasoota, Chulalongkorn University
20. Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation
21. Dr. Rangsun Thanaporpun, Thammasat University
22. Dr. Craig J. Reynolds, Australian National University
23. Dr. Rom Hiranpruk, National Science & Technology Development Agency
24. Dr. Sirote Klampaiboon
25. Sombat Boonngamanong, 19sep.net
26. Dr. Somkiat Tangnamo, Midnight University
27. Southeast Asian Press Alliance
28. Supinya Klangnarong, Campaign for Popular Media Reform, Office of Human Rights and Social Development, Mahidol University
29. Suthep Wilailerd, Campaign for Popular Media Reform
30. Thai Labour Campaign
31. Dr. Thongchai Wichakul, University of Wisconsin
32. John Twigg, Publisher, Metro Magazine

Update: One day after, Google had replied the letter above, stated that they got no approach from Thai government and there’s no censorship from Google side. See Google’s reply.