Besides having some of the tastiest food in the world and being one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region, Thailand is also one of the more problematic countries when it comes to online liberty. This gastronomic heaven received its best classification for freedom of internet access in 2013, when it was labeled as “partially free” by Freedom House in its reports due to the steps made towards a more liberal lifestyle. However that rating didn’t last long, as only one year later Thailand was reduced to “not free” once again. In fact, internet censorship has been increasing over the last ten years with content being subjected to heavy filters, often blocked and regulated by different entities. Fortunately, the use of VPNs and other circumvention methods is not banned, reflecting the worldliness of Bangkok and meaning VPN providers have installed servers in Thailand – particularly in its capital city.
Thailand is a fairly repressed country, particularly when it comes to internet usage. Bangkok has six TV stations broadcasting on a national level via relay stations. Two of them are owned by the Royal Thai Army and the rest belong to the state itself. These are all required to broadcast programs produced by the government, although there are also cable TV subscriptions available that provide satellite channels, making some of the content exclusive to the country – particularly soap operas. Although there are some TV stations that provide live online streams, such as TPBS (Thai Public Broadcasting Service), others are not under this same umbrella and are often pre-recorded.
Thailand’s internet coverage is pretty decent, although speeds vary throughout the territory. These can go from a simple 2MB/s up to an amazing 1GB/s, depending on the ISP and the location. And although the internet is subject to heavy filters or even full blocks on certain content, VPNs and other online circumvention solutions are – almost unbelievably – not banned. This means finding a decent provider that offers one or more servers in Thailand is fairly easy.
Online privacy laws in Thailand are strict, with the country living in an online dictatorship in a way. ISPs are known to monitor traffic, store logs of your activity for potential future use – and let’s not forget that these providers are mostly government or military owned. In fact, a quick visit to the main Thai ISPs’ homepage will portray this, since the King’s image is presented on all of them. Not only that, but although there are internet service providers offering high speed connections, it is common for them to throttle internet speeds. This happens particularly to those who are consuming too much bandwidth during the day, usually imposing a 256 KB/s limit or lower.
As you might have already guessed, then, censorship in Thailand is one of the highest. The country is classed “not free” according to the Freedom of the Net Report, mostly because of the online filtering and website blocking that has been constantly increasing since 2006. Internet filtering includes sites associated with social, political, and internet tools. In other words, anything that might be seen as an ‘attack’ on the King or his policies as well as typical targets like adult and gambling content are usually blocked. This is applied via three different entities: the Royal Thai Police, the Communications Authority of Thailand, and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MICT). These are the ones responsible for providing a ‘clean’ online environment to Thai people, although the latter has the most control and power for issuing orders. ISPs are not forced to comply with any MICT requests for website blocking, however those who do not comply can expect punishments and fines.
In late 2010, the number of websites blocked reached over 110,000. In December 2011, the Cyber Security Operation Center was implemented by the government. This new censorship instrument then blocked more than 22,500 websites in less than three years.
Then there is the fact that there are also some TV channels – such as BBC One and Two, CNN, Yahoo News and more – that became blocked after dealing with Thai policies. YouTube has also been down several times, particularly after a video was posted ridiculing the image of the King.
As you might expect, Thailand is a quite repressive country regarding available foreign content. The only main foreign service available for Thai viewers is Netflix that – although it has a decent library – it obviously falls behind when compared to the American equivalent. However, the list of blocked content, services, and TV channels is beyond vast. Hulu, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Pandora, and the previously mentioned news channels such as the BBC, CNN, and Yahoo News are nowhere to be seen. Since Thailand is one of the most loved tourist destinations in the world, if you’re considering paying a visit or are already there then make sure to follow this advice: bring a VPN with you since this will be the best way to access blocked content in the country.
To make your life easier, we recommend three great VPN companies to choose from. All of them provide quality service and will grant access to a Thai IP address as they support servers in Thailand – leaping over the King’s digital walls.
IPVanish made a strong entrance as a VPN service provider in 2012, long before VPNs became so common, and it’s been further improving its service ever since. Fundamentally, this solution specializes in providing customers with secure and encrypted internet connections across all devices.
Offering customers an impressive 2,200 servers worldwide to choose from, IPVanish is both comprehensive and reliable. It’s also one of the few VPN providers that manage a big portion of its infrastructure in-house, owning 80% of its servers and only using self-developed software for its service. This reduces the company’s reliance on third parties, making it an even more trustworthy option.
As one of the strongest VPNs on the market, IPVanish also boasts a vast range of features that not only provide faster speeds but also permit a custom encryption level and all other elements of a VPN connection. With prices starting as low as $2.99 per month, users certainly get a lot for their money.
It takes a lot of courage to name a product so exactly in line with customer expectations. This is something Israeli company Safer Social must’ve considered with its a privacy-oriented tool SaferVPN, literally telling the world that its VPN service is “safer” right in the name. The company was founded in 2013 and is most renowned for the speed and reliability of its service, though a neat mix of stylish design with helpful information are important aspects the desktop clients and apps, too, since they use a smooth interface to make navigation easy while still highlighting the main functionalities. The company didn’t stop with developing desktop clients and apps, though, as they also boast browser extensions for quick VPN access, a VPN kill switch, and a neat automatic Wi-Fi protection feature. SaferVPN offers 700+ servers across 30+ different countries and, as an active supporter of the Unblock The Web movement, the provider makes constant effort to maintain the ability to unblock Netflix for its users.
VyprVPN, provided by Swiss-based Golden Frog, is one of the longest standing VPN services in the world. They own and manage both their server and their client software under one roof, without outsourcing anything to third party companies. Thanks to this, they not only guarantee unlimited bandwidth and stellar server uptime, but it has also allowed Golden Frog to come up with a set of innovative features. VyprVPN users have access to a unique network protocol called Chameleon, which scrambles metadata allowing you to bypass restrictions. Those who regularly run into unwanted malware sites, could prevent malicious redirections with the built-in VyprDNS feature and you can even manage your own VPN network via VyprVPN Cloud. The fast and secure routing is made complete with a large group of possible server locations, counting more than 70 countries and 200,000 IP addresses. VyprVPN is available for every major home device, smartphone and operating system. The subscription cost starts from $5 per month, but you can give it a go for free thanks to the 3-day trial.
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