According to a document dated 4 September 2015, Thai cabinet ministers told the Ministry of Information and Communication (MICT) to work out how to set up the gateway. A previous meeting in June was attended by representatives of the national police force and the Justice Department and the proposal to build the gateway was confirmed.
Thai netizens claim controlling internet access is the cyber equivalent of going back to the dark days of the Stone Age. In this case the Stone Age was pre-2006 when the state-owned Communications Authority of Thailand controlled the flow of information to almost 70 million people with a single internet portal.
Since then, Thailand has opened up somewhat and, although its international bandwidth is limited, a host of extra portals give Thai internet users average speeds in excess of 6Mbps. China operates similar internet access restrictions to the proposed one for Thailand. It has just three internet portals for a population of more than one billion.
Thailand to downgrade to single internet gateway
News in Asia
Thailand’s information ministry this week leaked plans that may see all international internet traffic routed through a single gateway. This will enable the government to more easily control what information Thai citizens have access to and block any websites it deems are inappropriate.