Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#201

Post by dstick » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:20 AM UTC

united893 wrote: post #200

pritovido wrote: post #195

I have traveled to Thailand several times, and once the taxi driver put drugs on my luggage. He was crony with the guard at the airport who was very surprised when he could not find the small cocaine bags the driver has put there(and I had thrown away). In Thailand they take drugs super seriously and they can blackmail you easily this way. On the other hand you see all kind of scumbags from western countries travelin…

Wait what?! I’ve got so many questions. How exactly does a Taxi driver coordinate with guards? At what point did you discover the scheme? You were nearly blackmailed and just threw away the evidence? How does the Airport guard blackmail you? How goes he expect to get paid? Why go through this and not just blackmail the actual legitimate drug users?

Here's a possible scenario based on the OPs story.

Two brothers - one works as a taxi driver, the other as an airport guard.

The taxi brother inserts small packs of cocaine in the bags of his passengers. Then texts his airport guard brother a description of the passenger and bag he inserted the drug in.

The passenger arrives at the security check and his bag gets pulled out.

The airport guard finds the drugs and puts the passenger in a room somewhere in the airport. The passenger now gets an option: pay a nice bribe and board the plane, or don't and spend the night there with the option of landing in a Thai jail.

Passenger decides to opt for the bribe (at that point, who wouldn't) - even though they know full well they didn't carry any drugs.

The airport guard brother pockets the $XXXX and the passenger hightails it out of there. Scared shitless.

Brother and brother meet at a bar later and share their spoils, celebrating with a nice meal and a few too many drinks.

Rinse and repeat. Could work with nephews, friends, family - it's probably not that hard.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#202

Post by rendall » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:21 AM UTC

I'm going to stand up on a soapbox and use this incident to flog my pet issue, here. It may not be obvious to everyone how it relates, so bear with me.

Many people wonder how a "free speech absolutist", such as myself, can hold the point of view that we do: how can we advocate for absolute free speech when it allows anti-vaxxers or bullies or holocaust deniers or racists or fake news purveyors to freely promote their reprehensible views? Many people think we must, on some level agree with these terrible views, or at best be severely misguided, in order to so vociferously actually defend their rights to say it.

Not at all. We defend the rights of the least popular, even reprehensible, points of view in order to protect our own right to say and hear ideas with which others may disagree. Remember, many beliefs we hold now, were once illegal: equality of races, marriage between races, that one should worship or not as their own conscience dictates, marriage between same sexes - these were not only illegal - but it was illegal even to advocate for these. In some places even today it is still illegal to express such points of view.

We free-speech advocates believe that a good idea is stronger than a bad idea, and as a stronger idea, will win in the marketplace of ideas. Good medical information will always defeat bad information; good moral ideas will always defeat bad moral ideas, and so forth. By legally suppressing the expression of reprehensible ideas, a government is conceding that they believe that these bad ideas are somehow stronger and more convincing than good ideas. Yes, there will always be people who are convinced by a bad idea, but if the expression of the idea is suppressed, no right-thinking person will ever bother to argue against it.

And now I get to my point: laws such as this one that criminalize defamation, or those against "blasphemy", or against "profaning the honor of the country", or against spreading lies, or even hate speech, are all the same at the end of the day: they might sound like they are helping society, but they will be used in unexpected ways, as we see here. Often they will be to suppress speech that offends the powerful, as we see here. Moreover, they will chill adjacent speech, that is not necessarily illegal, but since non-lawyers are never really sure where the bounds of the law lie precisely, they will be reluctant to cross even imaginary barriers.

Now I'm hopping off my soapbox, and I would love to read your reply especially if you disagree!

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#203

Post by toong » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:22 AM UTC

united893 wrote: post #200

pritovido wrote: post #195

I have traveled to Thailand several times, and once the taxi driver put drugs on my luggage. He was crony with the guard at the airport who was very surprised when he could not find the small cocaine bags the driver has put there(and I had thrown away). In Thailand they take drugs super seriously and they can blackmail you easily this way. On the other hand you see all kind of scumbags from western countries travelin…

Wait what?! I’ve got so many questions. How exactly does a Taxi driver coordinate with guards? At what point did you discover the scheme? You were nearly blackmailed and just threw away the evidence? How does the Airport guard blackmail you? How goes he expect to get paid? Why go through this and not just blackmail the actual legitimate drug users?

I don't know, but something along these lines:

The airport guard searches your bag, finds the cocaine and proposes you pay a hefty sum to make the problem go away. The taxi driver gets his cut for planting the evidence.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#204

Post by samvher » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:25 AM UTC

baby wrote: post #189

samvher wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting - I also traveled around Thailand and had basically only good experiences in Koh Tao (the diving there is gorgeous), but a number of bad experiences mainly around Bangkok and Chiangmai (never setting foot there again! :) ). Specific events definitely color our impressions of places!

What happened? I’m convinced my girlfriend almost got abducted at the airport by w fake cab.

In Bangkok it was mainly tuk-tuks taking me to places I didn't want to go and many attempted scams (magicians, dealers in jewels, someone pretending to be police). In Chiangmai I had my worst couchsurfing experience, really unpleasant guy who I went to town with and was dependent on (he took me half an hour or so on the back of his motorcycle) and who got really drunk after I asked him to please stop drinking (because of the ride). He told me not to worry because "if we die we die together" and a couple of times gave the impression of trying to leave without me. Then I ended up in another hotel which turned out to be above a brothel and to have used condoms in the room, but couldn't really leave because I had gotten food poisoning.

I also met some really nice people in Thailand, but I do feel it has been a bit ruined by the wrong kind of tourism.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#205

Post by SoheilPKO » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:28 AM UTC

Funny

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#206

Post by biztos » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:29 AM UTC

ashtonkem wrote: post #190

kinghtown wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most visited countries in the world. We are all well aware of the reputation they have for sex tourism so anyone going there really needs to embrace the idea that Thailand isn’t quite the same as a typical western country. I have no great interest in going (I live in Taiwan and the average review I hear for a family vacation isn’t very flattering) but if I were I would be really careful. Most people woeful…

I get that some people are entitled idiots who seem completely incapable of thinking through the consequences of their actions, but I’ve never heard Thailand described in a way that sounds terribly interesting to me as a vacation spot. Then again, I typically describe any place with more than a few dozen people as overly crowded for the purposes of vacationing, so maybe I’m not the right person to ask.

Bangkok is arguably the foodiest city in the world, and has the best contemporary art scene in South-East Asia.

Just to name a couple things I find interesting there; your interests presumably differ.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#207

Post by Fnoord » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:32 AM UTC

taneq wrote: post #166

MiroF wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are many poor people in Thailand but many very, very wealthy people and you might not be able to recognise which is which. The wealth divide is very big. Of course - this is true of most countries in the global south since the 80/90s.

Maybe it's because I've only just run across it, but this 'global north' / 'global south' thing is super weird. If you mean 'rich countries' / 'poor countries' why not say that, rather than link it to something like latitude which is only nebulously related to what you're actually trying to say?

Rich and poor country is relative, too. Compared to 50 years ago, there are almost no third world countries anymore. I believe Hans Rosling shared some data about this in his book Factfulness.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#208

Post by scyllax » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:39 AM UTC

I have been living and working in Thailand for more than a year now, and I never had similar issues in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, etc... I'm sorry for what happned to this guest, and I think that if we travel to a country we should be a litle bit aware of their cultures and respectful to their laws.

That said, jail was extreme in this case, and a warning would've been sufficient in my opinion.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#209

Post by john2x » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 8:52 AM UTC

dstick wrote: post #201

united893 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait what?! I’ve got so many questions. How exactly does a Taxi driver coordinate with guards? At what point did you discover the scheme? You were nearly blackmailed and just threw away the evidence? How does the Airport guard blackmail you? How goes he expect to get paid? Why go through this and not just blackmail the actual legitimate drug users?

Here's a possible scenario based on the OPs story. Two brothers - one works as a taxi driver, the other as an airport guard. The taxi brother inserts small packs of cocaine in the bags of his passengers. Then texts his airport guard brother a description of the passenger and bag he inserted the drug in. The passenger arrives at the security check and his bag gets pulled out. The airport guard finds the drugs and puts…

A similar thing happens in the Philippines, but with gun ammunition instead of drugs. Yes, having a single loose ammo in your luggage at the airport can land you in jail. It got so bad that passengers would wrap their entire luggage with duct tape or cellophane to make sure the guards at the airport won't sneak one in. In fact, airports actually have cellophane dispensers so passengers can wrap them at the airport in case they forget to do it at home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ninoy_Aquino_Internationa...

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#210

Post by Scapeghost » Mon, Sep 28, 2020, 9:00 AM UTC

This is a big problem in the UAE too.

Any critique of anything that makes the country look less than a perfect paradise may get you fined, jailed and deported.

For example, some Swiss journalists were apprehended for taking pictures of the poor condition of laborers in Abu Dhabi.

If you try to report a crime, the police will grill you instead (why did you take pictures of the person sitting in the street selling shady goods, why didn't you just ignore the touts offering prostitution)

Even the community-run Dubai subreddit self-censors any real criticism of the city as "Dubai bashing"

These places are polished turds, with a lot of crap going on behind the scenes that foreigners don't see because of their carefully curated image and marketing.