They're Not Anti-Technology, They're Anti-Free Thought

On March 5, three men were sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for allegedly sending news of the protests in Burma in 2007 over the internet. I find it interesting that had they not used a computer to send this message, they may not have been caught. According to an article at Prachatai, the police had no evidence, but frankly, they didn’t need it. The decision was made before trial had even begun. Reports of the trial weren’t even released in Thailand.

Despite these reports of cyber related crimes, the article discusses that this use of technology is not what the Thailand monarchy is against. They are against the independent thoughts that might turn against their leaders. They are still a fairly technologically savvy country, but this use of technology to spread the independent thoughts of some activists in Thailand scares them. I just thought this was interesting because I had never thought about it before. The power of the internet scares them, but hopefully this won’t be enough to limit their access to free speech even further.