Thai govt websites crash in 'symbolic act' by censorship critics

Bangkok

SEVERAL Thai government websites temporarily crashed due to a "symbolic act" by people against plans to introduce a single Internet gateway, officials said on Thursday, a measure critics say will make it easier for the ruling junta to censor the Web.

A minister stopped short of describing the incident as a cyber attack, but said that it was triggered by those opposed to the proposal, dubbed by some online as the "Great Firewall of Thailand" - a play on China's draconian Internet censorship programme.