The future of the internet just 20 years ago could not have been rosier. When Thailand logged on, the technology promised and delivered instant communications. Beyond that, the gains are diminishing. The freedom to use the undoubted power of the technological revolution is diminishing. Huge companies and Big Government have inflicted new controls and censorship that were unthinkable in the days of "old media". And the new controls and barriers to internet freedom are multiplying faster than basic access to the internet.
The 2018 report on "Freedom On the Net" by the US human rights monitor Freedom House is the most current illustration. It says the past eight years show the rise of digital authoritarianism. In general, "global internet freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year".
By its measurements of access, limits on content and general violation of human rights, Freedom House ranks Thailand extremely low, and in the category of "not free". In our region, Vietnam is worse than Thailand. In Africa, only Ethiopia is rated less free than Thailand. Thailand's bragging rights, assuming they exist, is that our internet freedom is above that of six countries in the Middle East. "We're more free than Saudi Arabia and Iran" is not an uplifting cry.
And then there is China. The Beijing government, unfortunately, enforces and believes in its freedom-crushing control of the internet. The Chinese authorities allow and encourage internet use for its rapid communications and massive computing features. But the Chinese employ hundreds of thousands in their effort to suppress "bad use" of the net via the world's highest firewall.
This unsupportable intimidation of internet users, backed by liberal use of long prison terms, has long earned strong criticism. On its scale of "100 equals total lack of freedom", Freedom House gave China the world's worst score of 88, worst in the world. China is not just censoring the internet, but its policies aim at, and mostly achieve the social and political shaping of a billion people under a communist regime topped by a president for life.
Now it is getting worse. China is moving to encourage governments and influential internet users to follow its example. Beijing is spending big money on both diplomatic and people-to-people programmes to encourage censorship by big government around the world. China has agreed to "allow" its citizens to access the world's most popular search engine on the condition that Google write and display a quite different search ability. Google has tried to censor news of its development of the Dragonfly search engine because it is embarrassing. Nevertheless, because it will earn Google more income, the California company is kowtowing almost to ground level to please Beijing.
And it is worse than that. In the past year, China has invited groups of hand-picked media influencers from 36 countries on 36 junkets to China. Beijing has picked up all expenses and paid a per diem. The participants are taken to "workshops for new media" -- i.e. web news editors, streaming internet providers and particularly content writers and editors. One of the key Chinese targets is Thailand. Thai groups have attended two Chinese "seminars for media professionals", including one that is currently under way, until Friday.
The free trip includes tourist outings and historical visits in Yunnan province. It also includes -- China's words -- "lectures on international cooperation and communication practised by mainstream media in China" and manipulation of new-media technology. China hopes that the Thai group will return home and begin to employ Chinese techniques in new-media technology. Those who value the democratic process and freedom of speech in public and on the internet hope they do not.