HONG KONG — The tentacles of government censors are creeping ever further across the web in the Asia-Pacific region as officials from Thailand to Australia try to control what people say and do online.
Aside from China, which has a vast army of censors operating behind what has been dubbed the "Great Firewall", other countries are also taking steps to restrict access to the Internet.
A massive cyber attack has crippled the web in military-ruled Myanmar ahead of Sunday's controversial election, IT experts say, raising fears of a deliberate communications blackout for the vote.
But moves to rein in Internet freedoms in other countries in the region are often presented as being well intentioned.
Australia proposes introducing an Internet filter to block sites containing material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has defended the plan as a moral move which will bring the web into line with TV and film which have long been censored by the state.
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