Many Thai govt websites crash in symbolic act by critics

Several Thai government websites temporarily crashed due to a “symbolic act” by people against plans to introduce a single Internet gateway, officials said on Thursday, a measure critics say will make it easier for the ruling junta to censor the web. A minister stopped short of describing the incident as a cyber attack but said that it was triggered by those opposed to the proposal, dubbed by some online as the “Great Firewall of Thailand” - a play on China’s draconian Internet censorship programme. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology’s (ICT) website went down for more than two hours last evening after it was “overcrowded” by the number of users, ICT deputy permanent secretary Somsak Khaosuwan, said.