BANGKOK: Thailand aims to buy software to strengthen the military government’s ability to track online networks and monitor online activity while planning a cyber law that will expand powers to pry into private communications.
The beefing up of powers over the online world come as authorities are increasingly targeting social media for violations of a law that makes it a crime to defame, insult or threaten the king, queen, heir to the throne or regent.
The Digital Economy Ministry aims to spend 128.56 million baht ($3.8 million) on software including a “social network data analysis system” to monitor and map individuals and relationships between more than one million online users, according to a ministry document.
“The software will sweep and store all data available on social media to be analysed and monitored,” Teerawut Thongpak, director of the ministry’s Digital Service Infrastructure Department, said. He said the government would post a tender for the software and then consider offers.
Governments around the world buy social media monitoring products to chart relationships and networks, as well as to monitor dissidents and identify their leaders.
New York University researchers have also found various US jurisdictions had spent more than $5.82 million on social media monitoring software.
Since a May 2014 coup in Thailand, the military government has arrested numerous people on suspicion of posting material on Facebook and other platforms deemed to violate the royal-insult law.
The legal watchdog group iLaw says 59 people have been found guilty over online posts since the coup. This month, in the toughest sentence yet, a man was jailed for 35 years under the law for posts online. —Reuters
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