LOS ANGELES—One week after the government of Thailand slapped a nationwide ban on Pornhub and nearly 200 other adult sites, Thai internet users are rushing to find ways to get around the online blockages. According to the site Atlas VPN, installations of Virtual Private Network software skyrocketed by 644 percent in Thailand in the days immediately following the ban.
Though internet censorship is not unusual in Thailand, the government has largely focused efforts on suppressing political views that are looked upon unfavorably by authorities, such as criticism of the country’s royal family. Pornography is technically illegal under the 2007 Computer Crime Act, but for the most part the country’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has taken a lax approach to enforcing censorship of adult content.
That all changed last week, when Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta announced that Pornhub and about 190 other sites would be blocked within Thailand. The decision sparked both online and street protests, after users attempting to access the sites instead found a message reading. “This content has been suspended because it is guilty according to the Computer Crime Act 2007 by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.”
Even though concealing a user’s IP address is also technically illegal under the 2007 law — which may account for Thailand’s historically low use of VPN services — the ban sent internet users rushing to add the privacy-enhancing software to their computers and phones.
“VPN is best described as a service that hides the user’s real IP address and encrypts his online traffic. As a result, these changes prevent nosy 3rd parties such as the government, ISP (Internet Service Provider), or hackers, from tracking the user’s activities online,” write Atlas VPN in a blog post. “Using a VPN helps overcome websites banned by Thailand’s government, which is why citizens hurried to download these services.”
In addition to providing privacy, VPNs can also disguise a user’s IP address by routing it through a server outside the country of origin. As a result, users inside Thailand can trick servers into believing that they are actually outside of the country, effectively circumventing the Thai porn ban.
Using the average number of VPN installs over the previous 30 days, Atlas tracked new installs starting on November 2, the first day that the sites were blocked. On that day alone, VPN installations in Thailand leaped by 455 percent, rising to 644 percent the following day.
Photo by Stefan Coders / Pixabay
