Back in August, the Bangkok Post reported:

The government will set up a war room to curb the activities of websites with lese majeste content, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said on Friday.

I won't let lese majeste websites stay on line during this government," said Mr Chalerm, who is in charge of justice and media.

Prachatai:

It was reported that on 6 Dec, Chalerm and Police Chief Pol Gen Priewpan Damapong had lunch with Army Chief Prayuth Chan-ocha and Minister of Defence Gen Yutthasak Sasiprapha, and concerns were raised about offensive content on the internet.  The Prime Minister appointed this committee on the following day as proposed by Chalerm.

On that, The Nation:

The political intrigue heightens as Chalerm revealed his two moves following a dinner with Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha organised the fence-mending between Chalerm and the military.

Thai Rath reports it was lunch and they have confirmation of the meeting from the Defence Minister. On December 6, the Defence Minister confirmed that he invited Chalerm to the Defence Ministry and that Prayuth (as well as Police Chief and many other members of the military brass). He said they exchanged opinions, but didn't speak about the  91 reds killed in anyway (ซึ่งการมารับประทานอาหารพูดคุยแลกเปลี่ยนความคิดเห็น โดยในโต๊ะอาหารวันนี้ไม่ได้มีการพูดคุยเรื่อง 91 ศพคนเสื้อแดงแต่อย่างใด). Yuthasak also said that they also asked the Deputy PM to take care of Web sites and Facebook which are highly inappropriate which are very widespread now at this moment (พล.อ.ยุทธศักดิ์ กล่าวต่อไปว่า อีกเรื่องที่พูดกันมากคือ อยากให้รองนายกฯ ดูแลเรื่องเว็บไซต์ เฟซบุ๊ก ที่ไม่สมควรอย่างยิ่ง ที่เกิดขึ้นอยู่ในขณะนี้เป็นจำนวนมาก) and the Army C-in-C was very concerned about this matter as the military has the duty of defending the monarchy (ซึ่ง ผบ.ทบ.บอกว่าท่านห่วงและกังวลใจมากเรื่องนี้ เพราะทหารมีหน้าที่ปกป้องสถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์) and he didn't want this to happen (และท่านไม่อยากเห็นสิ่งเหล่านี้เกิดขึ้น).

The Bangkok Post then on December 7:

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has offered to lead a camapaign for the suppression of websites deemed to broadcast lese majeste content.

He said on Wednesday he had submitted a proposal through the cabinet secretary-general to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for the setting up of a committee responsible for the suppression of lese majeste websites.

Mr Chalerm said he had also offered to chair the committee.

According to Post Today, Yingluck then appointed Chalerm as Chairman of a 22 member committee to suppress lese majeste. The committee has held its first meeting and MCOTreports a senior police officer (พ.ต.อ.ศิริพงษ์ ติมุลา รองผู้บังคับการปรามปรามการกระทำความผิดเกี่ยวกับอาชญากรรมทางเทคโนโลยี ) as stating that the committee had asked the Criminal Court for an order to block 116 URLs and the authorities had searched 5 places and found information at 2 places, but not at the other three. Professor Somsak of Thammasat University in a comment at New Mandala:

Yesterday, police visited a home of a blogger with a search warrant. His fate is still uncertain, he hasn't been heard since he posted the news on his fb of the search. I was also learned that a group of police had gone to the residence of the webmaster of a very well-known website, although luckily he wasn't there. The police apparently said they were not seeking his arrest but just wanted to invited him to talk. There were also unconfirmed report of similar incidents. All these happened as part of Cha-lerm-led efforts to, as he himself declared, shut down 200 LM websites, and he clearly kept his word that yesterday would be the "D-Day", the start of the crackdown.

Sunai of Human Rights Watch confirms here that one person was detained. Then in a subsequent comment, Somsak notes:

"Thaiwat" was released home after spending sometimes at the DSI. I haven't heard yet whether any formal charge was made against him, or just "questioning".

BP: The crackdown has started although it seems we need more money to properly crack down. The Bangkok Post:

The government yesterday calmed fears civil rights would be threatened if it adopts a tighter monitoring system to counter anti-monarchy messages on the internet.

The proposed procurement of "a lawful interception (LI) system", estimated at 400 million baht, was unveiled yesterday during a press briefing by a government panel to crack down on lese majeste on the internet.

The panel was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung.

Pol Col Siripong Timula, deputy commander of Technology Crime Suppression Division, assured that the LI system would not be used extensively, but would be allowed by a court order.

"To curb anxiety, I'd like to stress that the system must be applied under the law, which means it must be approved by a court. So there is no need to fear violations of rights," he said.

Mr Chalerm said Wednesday the procurement of the LI system was proof that the government and his committee were taking the issue seriously.

Here is an excerpt from the Wiki page:

To prevent investigations' being compromised, LI systems may be designed in a manner that hides the interception from the telecommunications operator concerned. This is a requirement in some jurisdictions.

To ensure systematic procedures for carrying out interception, while also lowering the costs of interception solutions, industry groups and government agencies worldwide have attempted to standardize the technical processes behind lawful interception. One organization, ETSI, has been a major driver in lawful interception standards not only for Europe, but worldwide.

This architecture attempts to define a systematic and extensible means by which network operators and law enforcement agents (LEAs) can interact, especially as networks grow in sophistication and scope of services. Note this architecture applies to not only "traditional" wireline and wireless voice calls, but to IP-based services such as Voice over IP, email, instant messaging, etc. The architecture is now applied worldwide (in some cases with slight variations in terminology), including in the United States in the context of CALEAconformance. Three stages are called for in the architecture:

  1. collection where target-related "call" data and content are extracted from the network
  2. mediation where the data is formatted to conform to specific standards
  3. delivery of the data and content to the law enforcement agency (LEA).

The call data (known as Intercept Related Information or IRI in Europe and Call Data or CD in the US) consists of information about the targeted communications, including destination of a voice call (e.g., called party's telephone number), source of a call (caller's phone number), time of the call, duration, etc. Call content is namely the stream of data carrying the call. Included in the architecture is the lawful interception management function, which covers interception session set-up and tear down, scheduling, target identification, etc. Communications between the network operator and LEA are via the Handover Interfaces (designated HI). Communications data and content are typically delivered from the network operator to the LEA in an encrypted format over an IP-based VPN. The interception of traditional voice calls still often relies on the establishment of an ISDN channel that is set up at the time of the interception.

As stated above, the ETSI architecture is equally applicable to IP-based services where IRI (or CD) is dependent on parameters associated with the traffic from a given application to be intercepted. For example, in the case of email IRI would be similar to the header information on an email message (e.g., destination email address, source email address, time email was transmitted) as well as pertinent header information within the IP packets conveying the message (e.g., source IP address of email server originating the email message). Of course, more in-depth information would be obtained by the interception system so as to avoid the usual email address spoofing that often takes place (e.g., spoofing of source address). Voice-over-IP likewise has its own IRI, including data derived from Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages that are used to set up and tear down a VOIP call.

BP: So basically a system that collates the information in a wiretap (sounds like a more advanced system than they were using on The Wire.….). This would allow for much more "effective" action (ie make it easier to locate people).

How many people will be detained? So far there are only search warrants. Will they also be arrested?

More in part II

http://asiancorrespondent.com/72036/chalerm-military-and-lese-majeste-part-2/

In the previous post, BP looked at the increasing government crackdown on lese majeste particularly the blocking of Web sites. This arose after Chalerm's meeting with the military – see also yesterday's post about Yingluck and the military – which then lead to the establishment of a new lese majeste suppression committee.  Some slight background, before the establishment of this committee, lese majeste Web sites were being actively blocked. NYT in October:

Down a maze of neon-lit corridors in a massive government complex here is a windowless room where computer technicians scour the Internet for photos, articles, Facebook postings — anything that might be deemed offensive to King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family.

The technicians work in what is called the Office of Prevention and Suppression of Information Technology Crimes. The government that came to power in July prefers to call it the "war room," the headquarters of a vigorous and expanding campaign to purify the Internet of royal insults.

The crackdown, which officials have vowed to intensify, is being carried out by a team of 10 computer specialists led by Surachai Nilsang, whose title is cyberinspector.

"The thing that drives us to do our duty is that we love and worship the monarchy," Mr. Surachai said in a two-hour interview here. He and his colleagues showed a reporter around the war room and an adjacent space that contained computers seized as evidence from suspects charged with insulting the monarchy. It was the first visit by a journalist to the facilities.

…

Technicians in the war room have blocked 70,000 Internet pages over the past four years, and the vast majority — about 60,000 — were banned for insults to the monarchy, according to Mr. Surachai. (Most of the other pages were blocked for pornography.) Each blocked page requires a court order, a request that judges have never turned down, Mr. Surachai said.

….
Some cases of lèse-majesté are clear-cut, Mr. Surachai said. He does not hesitate to block a Web page that displays a picture of the king with a foot above his head, a grave insult. Also an obvious offense, Mr. Surachai said, is the practice of using a very informal pronoun before the king's name, one of the many subtleties of the Thai language that are lost in translation.

But often the hunt for royal insults is more subtle. "They usually post metaphors," Mr. Surachai said of suspected offenders. "They have their own code words."

The government has increased the budget for the war room, and staff levels will soon increase to allow for a 24-hour operation.Many lèse-majesté comments are posted after midnight and in the early hours before dawn, technicians in the war room say.

….
In the war room, the technicians say they are being pressured from all sides. Their office receives anywhere from 20 to 100 e-mailed complaints a day. Like Thai society itself, the e-mails are split between supporters and detractors of the crackdown.

…

"Ninety percent are prank calls," said Nut Payongsri, a technician in the war room.

Mr. Surachai, the head of the war room, says he often looks for guidance from his superiors. He uses a "spider," a specialized computer program that trawls the Internet and flags potentially offensive content. He then often consults with a special military unit attached to the king's palace to inquire about the veracity of some Internet postings.

BP: You can see how involved the military is – see also this Bangkok Post article from Wassana back in December 2008.

Reuters in early December:

From a windowless room in a Bangkok suburb, computer technicians scour thousands of websites, Facebook pages and tweets night and day. Their mission: to suppress what is regarded as one of Thailand's most heinous crimes — insulting the monarchy.

The government calls this its "war room", part of a zero-tolerance campaign that uses the world's most draconian lese-majeste laws to stamp out even the faintest criticism of 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch.

…

The tough-sounding Cyber Security Operation Centre remains focused, however.

"We don't have any impressive equipment to track suspicious Internet activity," said Nut Payongsri, an official in the vast government complex. "In most cases, we hear about misuse via calls to our hotline. We check each case and report them to the police."

…

An ICT Ministry official told Reuters that Thais who received anti-monarchy messages by email or on their personal Facebook walls and failed to delete them were also in violation.

"We would take them to court and prosecute them," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to the media. "It is against the law to do such a thing and as a result, they will be fined and jailed."

The ICT Ministry said it was in talks with Facebook to block pages hosted outside Thailand carrying offensive content its cyber police were powerless to block. The U.S.-based social networking site did not respond to questions from Reuters.

Bangkok Post:

The centre for monitoring lese majeste websites is offering advice to Thais on what to do and not to do when browsing the internet.

The centre, which will run 24 hours a day, has opened on the third floor of the Royal Thai Police headquarters.

Bringing together the country's top police, it will be headed by the deputy commander of the technology crime suppression division, Pol Col Siripong Timula.

…Mr Chalerm asked committee members to send their ICT staff to man the 24-hour centre so they can trawl the internet and catch websites with lese majeste content.

He said his committee has set up three sub-committees to accelerate surveillance work.

The government has no intention to change the controversial Article 112 of the Criminal Code, or the lese majeste law, which some critics say discourages freedom of speech, Mr Chalerm said. "This committee will never amend Article 112 and I see no point in talking about this issue any further. If anyone wants to launch an amendment proposal by collecting 20,000 signatures as allowed by law, let him do it," he said.

"But it will not be easy. There's no guarantee it [the proposal] will become law if the amendment does not benefit society as a whole."

Senior police officers will chair the three sub-committees.

BP: So does the ICT Ministry still run a separate centre or has the new centre taken over its role?

VOA:

A new "war room" of 50 investigators scours the Internet for crimes including harassment and pornography. But on this first tour given to foreign television, investigators emphasized their main focus.

"So, the first priority is the monarchy. And, the other contents are important too, but the priority is later," said computer technical officer Narongdej Watcharapasorn.

The evidence of alleged offenses is so sensitive it is kept in a sealed room.

They have so far blocked 60,000 web pages. His team now asks providers like Facebook and Google to help by removing offensive web pages at the source.

"If Facebook has 1,000 pictures, it may have 1,000 URLs and we have to suppress 1,000 URLs. But, if we ask Facebook to remove the content for us all 1,000 URLs will disappear without using the court order and will disappear forever," Narongdej said.

Facebook tells VOA they restrict content in countries where it is considered illegal, but did not specify what content, if any, they are blocking in Thailand.

BP: Restrict as in block that page for someone from Thailand (i.e an IP address which shows they are in Thailand)?

Part 3 will look at Chalerm's relationship with the military.