The head of the Thai police proposed a plan to reduce multiple internet gateways to a single one in order to increase the efficiency of the state’s surveillance system.    

Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang, the chief of the Royal Thai Police, on Wednesday suggested to the Thai government and the state’s security agencies to permit only one internet gateway system instead of multiple ones.

He reasoned that through a single gateway system, it will be much easier for the state authorities to monitor, filter, delete, and intercept information on the internet that could be deemed inappropriate.

Currently, there are about 10 international internet gateway operators in Thailand.

The police chief said that the implementation of the plan is expected to cost about a billion Thai Baht (29,701,360 USD).   

Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri, will study the feasibility of the proposal and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) would be responsible for implementing the plan, added the Pol Gen.

Earlier this year, the Thai authorities announced a plan to pass a controversial Cyber Security Bill, which was much criticised by many civil society organisations as a national security bill in disguise.