March 30 2023, VPN Community Gathering

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This month we are excited to welcome Kaia (Front Line Defenders) and Darika (Security Matters, Thai Netizen) to discuss emerging threats and challenges to users in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In an election year (Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia) and with the backdrop of plans to implement GFW-style firewalls in Cambodia and Vietnam, organizations and digital security trainers regionally are searching for usable and affordable censorship-resilient tools and approaches to prepare users for election-related internet disruptions as well as the potential for more permanent censorship regionally.

Resources

Meeting Playlist

Presentation Slides

Thailand - Digital Rights Context (30-Mar-2023)

Notes

Thailand

Political Prosecution in Thailand

  • 1,895 people have been politically persecuted in 1,180 cases across Thailand.
  • Defamation of the monarchy (lèse-majese, Article 112) is one of the most popular charges.
  • The lawyer that produced the yellow duck calendar was imprisoned.
  • An activist was arrested on the 28th of March for graffiti of 112 and the Anarchist symbol on the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
  • Will people get arrested even for the memes that are being shared online that are considered defamation of the monarchy?

Elections in Thailand

  • Elections will happen on the May 14, 2023
    • May 14 is also the day of university final exams.
      • Many won’t be able to go home to vote due to exams, a suppression of the youth vote.
  • Elections in Myanmar will also happen in August, and the results of the Thai elections will affect Myanmar.

National Internet Gateway

  • A “Single Gateway” like that proposed in Vietnam and Cambodia was also proposed in Thailand.
    • Gamers were really against it and it was postponed.
    • It’s possible the gamer protest had an effect, however the government may have also realized that it would be too hard to manage in terms of infrastructure.
    • The idea is still on the table.

Additional Censorship and Surveillance

  • Thailand also used Pegasus to target activists in the country.

VPN Support

Internet censorship in Thailand is not as critical compared to Indonesia and Malaysia, but surveillance is a primary concern.

VPN Challenges

  • Language barrier

What are people using for VPN solutions?

  • Activists use VPNs to hide their IP addresses.
    • TunnelBear is the most popular
    • Tor Browser as well.
      • Trainers regionally have partnered with TunnelBear in the past, increasing visibility and use.
  • Regular people use VPNs to access Kpop music and other cultural / entertainment content.
  • Awareness of VPNs and their limitations is the challenge. Individuals think that they can trust any VPN and that VPNs by default are free.

Support for Thailand Leading into the Elections Improving the Feedback Loop for Documentation and Users

    • What guiding questions would be helpful for developers to get answers to?
    • Do you have guidelines for user feedback?

Election in Thailand in May

  • Trainings will take place in May for journalists and different VPNs and relevant tools will be integrated into the trainings.
    • Talked to FLD, OONI, Tor...
    • What tools should be included in the trainings, especially related to the election?

Q&A

Is the telecommunications state-owned or government-owned?

  • This is a critical question. There were 3 major ISP actors: 2 major actors that were associated with the government, plus Telenor.
    • Since 2021 however, Telenor has merged with Charoen Pokphand Group which has relationships with the military party.
    • Now there are only two major ISPs in the country, and one is owned by the prior prime minister who was kicked out of Thailand after the former coup.

Is it a better/safer strategy to promote VPN apps or instead to build circumvention tech into browsers, chat/messaging apps, news apps, etc?

  • Part of it is to think about laws targeting "VPNs" specifically, vs a browser or chat app that integrates tor/lantern/psiphon - def some good examples out there.
  • I think both promoting VPN apps and building circumvention technology into various apps and platforms can be effective strategies for enhancing online privacy and security.
  • It seems a lot of the censorship is DNS-based. So using encrypted DNS may be good enough.
    • https://getintra.org makes it very easy to use DoH on Android. It's not a VPN: it does encrypted DNS and ClientHello splitting
    • There is some TLS interference in some ISPs too. But Intra should help in that case.
    • It's also possible to put sites like no122.org on AWS storage, so it's impossible to block.

What are some of the best digital security resources available in Thai that you can recommend to human rights defenders?

Much of the SSD library is in Thai but out of date. And Engage Media has been working on Digital First Aid Kit in Thai etc.

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