Anyone who spends time in Thailand knows free speech doesn't exist. One of the world's worst countries when it comes to free speech and censorship, Thailand fell to number 153 out of 178 countries on Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index in 2011. An embarrassment for a country that was celebrated for its free speech just a few years ago.
Now representatives of the Thai government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have announced they will be working with Twitter to censor and block tweets coming from Thailand, since Twitter announced it would be implementing new country-specific censorship controls last week.
The Information and Communication Technology Ministry (ICT) says they will be contacting Twitter to "discuss ways in which they can collaborate". Since the ICT has blocked thousands of websites in Thailand in the last couple of years, they'll probably have a field day.
Twitter meanwhile says it can block any tweets deemed to be "against a specific country's laws", whatever those laws may be.
Under the new censorships blocks, Twitter will be able to block tweets from anyone in Thailand, including tourists, if it's felt they may be against the country's extremely strict laws. (Imagine living in a country where what you say is against the law. That's how millions of Thais live every day).
Many people living in Thailand know this will likely also include tweets with political statements, as closing down websites that don't agree with a current government has been modus operandi in Thailand for the last few years. Why should tweets be any different?
In response, many people I know, in Thailand and other countries around the world, have already closed Twitter accounts in protest, and more are likely to follow. After all, if you believe in free speech, why on earth would you support a company that so obviously doesn't?
For those who don't want to close Twitter accounts, there is however one saving grace. If you are in Thailand and want your opinion about what's happening in the country to get out, you can tweet it anyway. Twitter will just block the tweet in Thailand, but not globally, so people in other countries will still be able read it.
In other words, international opinion can still be swayed and even changed by tweets originating in Thailand.
It's one thing repressive governments, like the last couple of Thai governments, just don't seem to understand. They can keep blocking how free speech is disseminated, but those wanting to disseminate it will simply find other ways.
In fact, short of closing down access to the Internet completely in Thailand, there's really no way of stopping it. And for that, free speech supporters have a lot to be thankful for.
Special note - On any articles I write about freedom of speech or censorship in Thailand, I always turn off the ability for readers to comment. In Thailand, a writer can actually be jailed if someone puts a comment on an article they wrote that's deemed 'against the law' (it happened last year with a Thai writer) and the writer doesn't delete it fast enough. That's how much against basic human rights Thai censorship can be..
Remember however, just because I cannot allow you to comment here, as I really don't feel like spending time in a Thai jail, there are millions of other places online where you can comment. Places where you won't put the health and safety of writers at risk. Please do so.
