Hacker News Reader

Comment by officialchicken | Hacker News Reader

I just cancelled my ticket to Chiang Mai, I will find somewhere else to digital nomad.

I spent two years in Thailand doing the digital nomad thing, but I've relocated to Belize for the last 3.5 years. You can stay here indefinitely on a tourist visa and the islands are beautiful, with a very laid back lifestyle. My email is in my profile if you have any questions about life here.

You do realise don't you that the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have been doing much the same thing for many years, and on a global level, right? Go and read the articles from Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance three years ago.

The only difference is that the Thai government is being honest about what it wants to do. The "democracies" in the five eyes implemented mass surveillance in complete secrecy.

I was wondering what all the digital nomads there think of this.

I live in Thailand; I'm extremely skeptical that it's going to happen. The most likely explanation is that a few powerful generals feel like this must happen and proudly announce their plans, and technical teams responsible for actually doing it feel too intimidated to explain to the generals why it's impossible, so they just agree to it hoping that the dictatorship will be out of power before the implementation could happen.

As someone from /r/Thailand put it, "I'm hoping incompetence and indifference would save the day once again, as it has many times in the past." They can't withdraw it now without losing face, but they can let it just wither and become forgotten over a few years.

I also live in Thailand and I hope you are correct. But the fact that they can now easily buy the equipment and consulting to do this sort of thing means they might very well try it. And like I said in another comment, they don't care if it breaks the internet because they and the people they are serving don't use it like everyone else. To them the internet is little more than a major annoyance because it allows dissidents to communicate and engage in speech they don't like.

I also live in Thailand and think we should all get a beer.

firstname dot lastname at gmail

FUD is enough to control the rabble. Projects here are about funnelling money to family members. Lots of money will be spent, kickbacks will be received, and nothing will change significantly. Certainly nothing that would stop all the iPhone 6 status symbols from working or the elite will stomp all over it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com