“Thailand has finally calmed down on its Youtube rage, lifting a four month ban after a clip seemingly mocked Thailand’s monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej.”
Bangkok, Thailand — The government of Thailand has lifted a countrywide five-month long ban on the popular Internet video-sharing service YouTube, after it promised to censor offensive content posted on its site.
“The service was blocked five months ago after posting what authorities said were images offensive to the Thai king.”
The incident stemmed from several YouTube clips that mocked the country’s beloved monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which outraged many people in Thailand.
“Thailand residents can once again view their favorite videos on YouTube after the government and Google agreed to block any offensive clips in the future.”
It has been five long months since YouTube was blocked on April 4 2007, but the country’s minister of information Sittichai Pookaiyaudom says the agreement was actually reached some time ago, but that there have been technical hurdles in the implementation.
Back in March, Pookaiyaudom banned YouTube after a video defaming King Bhumibol Adulyadej appeared on the video sharing site. The video featured an image of the king with superimposed feet walking over his head – an offensive gesture in Thai culture where feet are considered dirty.
The country had said it was considering filing suit against Google on charges of lese-majesty, or offense to the monarchy.
“Insulting the king is considered an offence in Thailand and is punishable with a 15-year jail sentence.”
Interestingly enough, viewers outside the country will still be able to view the “banned” videos.
The country’s information minister on Friday announced that the ban was lifted as a gesture towards government’s commitment to free speech.
The dispute highlights problems faced by video-sharing websites like YouTube. With millions of users around the world, it would be almost impossible for it to comply with every law in every country.
YouTube has argued that approximately 60,000 new videos are posted on its website every day and hence it cannot be held responsible for the content of all of them.
The lifting of the ban drew a cautious response from media reform advocates like Supinya Klangnarong of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform group in Bangkok. She accuses the government of eroding freedom of expression.
She says the decision on YouTube is only a superficial improvement.
“It seems to be good news, but actually it is unlikely, because even though now YouTube will be unblocked it seems that it comes with many conditions. It shows that now the government could negotiate with “YouTube” that they will selectively block the websites that it deems not appropriate,” said Supinya.
“From now on, the Thai government can object to any posted video that is illegal or offensive to Thai culture. Google officials will then do an independent review and will block the videos from any IP address inside of Thailand.”
“So we saw that again, the government still has authority to block some of the websites due to the many measures that the public will not know what really the criteria of why a site would be blocked,” Supinya added.
The vast majority of Thais support their monarch and the government has instituted strict laws which threaten up to 15 years in prison for anyone who defames or insults the king.
These laws also extend to other members of royalty, including all past Thai kings. King Adulyadej himself takes a dim view of these laws saying that people have every right to criticize him. During his reign, he has pardoned several people convicted of breaking the defamation laws.
“So I think it is very hard now to defend freedom of speech, freedom of expression in Thailand, particularly under the authoritarian regime like this,” Supinya said.
The media reform group stresses that it does not advocate criticism of the king, who has been widely credited for advocating rural welfare. The monarchy lost absolute power in Thailand in 1932.
Google has not commented on the case yet.