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Thailand YouTube ban lifted

31 August 2007 5:00 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 7 comments

The Thai government has lifted a ban on Google's video sharing giant, YouTube, after YouTube reportedly agreed to block videos that are considered illegal in the country or are deemed offensive to Thai people or monarch. If true, such a ban on content of course would more than likely be localized. YouTube has been banned in Thailand since April 4th after users posted videos considered offensive to the monarch.

One of the videos depicted King Bhumibol Adulyadej's image with the soles of shoes pointed towards him. In Thailand, feet are considered extremely dirty and offensive by the people. The video's audio Track contained the country's national anthem. The Nation newspaper reported that Sitthichai Phokai-udom, the Information and Communication Technology Minister, said the ban was lifted because YouTube agreed not to run clips that are offensive to the monarch.

Google has not yet confirmed or denied the report, but was interested in getting the ban lifted as soon as possible. "We have the deepest respect for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej," Google wrote earlier this year in a letter to the ministry. "We likewise respect Thailand's law and tradition and hope that we will be able to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to the current controversy." Back in May, there was talk of a criminal lawsuit against Google on charges of "lese-majeste", which carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.

Source:
Yahoo (AP)

Permalink to this article | Topic: Online video

Indonesia wants YouTube ban for Koran video (3 April 2008)

Finnish police arrest, detain boy for YouTube threat (11 November 2007)

YouTube responds to Thailand ban (7 April 2007)

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Discuss this article!
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 31 August 2007 8:38
Heil to censorship heil! heil! [ + quote]
georgeluv (Member) 31 August 2007 9:47
nice, its good to see that google will fold like a paper napkin even in the most small and insignificant markets in the name of the almighty advertising dollar. if they will give in like this for f#cking thailand imagine how far they would bend over backwords to keep the american market if our government mandated censorship? [ + quote]
BcMester (Newbie) 31 August 2007 10:34
They have no backbone at all, they'd rather cut off their own balls just to keep that 0,05% of market share... I foresee this censorship tendency will get more and more widespread, until the Internet will split up to a large, heavily censored "official" part and a smaller, underground "free" part. I give it 5 years. [ + quote]
Unfocused (Member) 31 August 2007 15:41
*Quote:* criminal lawsuit against Google on charges of "lese-majeste", which carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years. So, what did they intend to do, take Google off-line for awhile? [ + quote]
madman91 (Junior Member) 7 September 2007 21:15
In 10 years, when google has purchased every company, they will buy thailand just to get even... and china too :-) [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 9 September 2007 23:32
Well google/youtube has to realise that they have to be culturally sensetive to other countries around the world. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 10 September 2007 5:25
*Originally posted by borhan9:* Well google/youtube has to realise that they have to be culturally sensetive to other countries around the world. thus why it limited free information in athortarina governments and comming soon tot eh US anything the corporations don't like you will not see on the net! [ + quote]