‘Somsak’s Work’, one of Somsak Jeamteerasakul’s blogs, has been banned intermittently in Thailand. The access has returned to normal for some users, but others said the blog remained inaccessible. 

Somsak Jeamteerasakul

A reporter found on Monday (23 September 2019) afternoon that somsakwork.blogspot.com was inaccessible in Thailand for hours. The display shows the statement “access to this page is denied due to improper or illegal content in breach of the computer crime act 2017.”

A display shows the statement when access to somsakwork.blogspot.com using AIS Fibre. 

The url is normally used to access Somsak's Work, one of the blogs written by Somsak Jeamteerasakul, the prominent historian in exile. The blog consists of articles, many of which relate to the monarchy. The blog started on 30 June 2006. The last update on this blog on 8 October 2015 was the publication of a document on the death of King Rama VIII.

For some users, access has returned to normal, but for some others, the blog remained inaccessible. However, ‘Somsak Work’ is still accessible through VPN which uses servers in countries outside Thailand. The blog is one of three blogs opened around the same time including Somsak (somsakj.blogspot.com) and Somsak’s coup (somsakcoup.blogspot.com), both of which are still accessible.

In 2017, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) issued an announcement for people not to follow any content written by Somsak Jeamteerasakul, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, and Andrew MacGregor Marshall.

After his health recovered in June 2019, one of Somsak’s Facebook posts disappeared from his profile, but can still be seen in the UK and France, raising the suspicion that it has been geo-blocked. On 28 July 2019, the 67th birthday of King Vajiralongkorn, he called for reform of the monarchy.