Best VPN for Thailand

Thailand is called “The Land of Smiles,” but when it comes to the Internet, there’s nothing to smile about. If you are planning to visit Thailand or want to live there, you should consider a VPN for Thailand. The Thai government enforces heavy censorship on Internet use and if you break its laws as a foreigner the consequences can be dramatic.

Many countries around the world are taking a stricter attitude towards Internet use in their territories. Most developed countries in the West, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, already have strict laws against streaming and downloading content online. In addition to these laws, these countries also spy on the Internet activity of their citizens.

The situation varies to a large extent in the major countries of the East, with the exception of China. However, some Asian countries are also moving towards such an approach towards Internet access and use. One such country is Thailand. The situation has changed a lot in a short period of time, which makes it absolutely necessary to use a VPN for Thailand.

The 3 best VPNs for Thailand

NordVPN

ExpressVPN

Surfshark

Internet rules in Thailand

Thailand has always been popular in the hacking community as the place where you can set up your base and go to work. The country has a reputation for providing cheap products and good quality fakes, which attract tourists from all over the world. While traders selling pirated DVDs continue to operate without any problems, the situation has become quite different for Internet users in Thailand.

The country began its spying initiative in 2013 when the Electronic Transactions Development Agency began working with a large number of organizations such as TSI, PKI Association , Google Asia Pacific, and eBay to name a few. This conglomerate was used to create Thailand’s code of conduct. The sole purpose is to prevent illegal content from making its way onto the web.

Online Restriction is all over the Internet

I recently visited Thailand for a couple of weeks and I must say, I absolutely loved the place! The people, the food and the culture are simply wonderful. Although I really enjoyed exploring the beautiful Kingdom of Thailand, I can’t help but miss my homeland.

So what I did was catch up with my favourite TV shows on Netflix using a VPN. Unfortunately, accessing geo-restricted websites such as Netflix and Hulu Plus are not possible in Thailand as like any place aside from the US. Even the use of social media like Facebook and Twitter are being strictly regulated in the country. Thailand has without a doubt one of the toughest online censorships laws in the world.

How strict are online restrictions in Thailand?

Internet censorship is unfortunately a problem in Thailand. There are two Thai government departments that are capable of implementing internet censorships in the country. First is the Thai Police department. They can basically block any website they find malicious from being accessed or viewed by Thai netizens. One report reveals that a total of over 70,000 websites/pages were blocked by the police department in the previous of years. I can only imagine how many more websites were added to the blacklist.

The second government body that is responsible for blocking websites is the Communications Authority of Thailand. The agency can instruct all Internet Service Providers in the country to blacklist certain websites. ISPs that fail to comply with the government’s requests will have their license cancelled. That’s how strict internet censorship laws and regulations in Thailand.

The paradigm shift in the case of the Internet means that users can be punished for downloading copyrighted content, disseminating copyrighted content, engaging in defamation against the government, and of course, any illegal activity related to spamming or phishing. Internet service providers are now required to register user data and hand it over to the authorities upon request.

Blocked websites

Thai Internet users have noticed that web pages they search for a lot, take longer to load than usual. Sometimes the URLs load immediately, but the web pages much later. All this is the result of ISPs and the government working together to spy on people.

The fact is that thousands of sites are blocked in Thailand.

Sometimes entire websites can be blocked or certain pages can be banned. Others may be blocked from time to time. Some of the sites that have been affected by Thai censorship include:

• BBC
• CNN
• YouTube
• wikileaks.org
• wikipedia
• The Age
• and more…

So what has changed? Apart from the strict action against copyright infringement and dissent activity on the web, users will be punished for accessing or trying to access sites that are blocked by the Thai government.

This means that if you enter the name of the site in the search bar, or click on a link to a website in your e-mail or instant messaging service, you can expect a fine and possibly even jail time in the infamous prison called Bangkok Hilton.

Why Use VPN in Thailand?

Luckily, you can take faith in your own hands and get both unrestricted access and security by using a VPN service. You will want a VPN if you live in Thailand!

VPN can help you bypass online restrictions. But how? VPN works by hiding your real IP address and masking it with a different IP of your choice, since your IP is your identification when accessing websites or connecting to your ISP.

Without being connected to a VPN service, you are actually exposing your real IP address to you ISP, the government and to hackers as well. They can basically see what IP address you are using, which is in this case is a Thai IP.

To trick your ISP and government into believing that you are not a Thai netizen, you need to use a VPN. To bypass any type of online restrictions, you first need to connect through a secured VPN network that will then allow you to do whatever you want online. So, we basically get complete internet freedom the hard way these days.

Other Advantages of Using VPN

By re-routing your internet connection through a VPN server you can:

• Change your IP address to one in another country
• Improve your security by ensuring your internet traffic is encrypted
• Access content that is normally restricted to you

So Now, Can I Watch Netflix in Thailand?

Absolutely yes! Like I said, I used VPN to access Netflix when I was in Thailand. All you need is a VPN service from a VPN provider that offers sufficient (uncapped) connection speed to stream content from United States.

But choosing a VPN service provider can be a bit overwhelming since there are literally hundreds of companies that offer VPN services out there.

To avoid subscribing to the wrong premium VPN account, we highly recommend that you give either NordVPN or ExpressVPN a try. You can browse through this website to read our comprehensive and honest reviews on the said VPN providers.

What is the best VPN for Thailand?

For a premium VPN, I recommend NordVPN. You can get started with a 30-day risk-free money back guarantee. That’s an awesome way to test their service on your own computer.

Keep in mind, Netflix also offer a 30-day free trial! So, pick a VPN today and start using a US IP to be able to watch videos on Netflix. For more information on how to use Thai VPN with Netflix, read our guide on how to unblock Netflix outside US.