YouTube accede to Thai complaints

[Guest wowpow]

CNN News

 

BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) -- The anonymous creator of a 44-second video clip mocking Thailand's revered king removed it from the YouTube video-sharing Web site on Thursday after torrents of abuse from outraged Thai viewers.

 

The relevant page on YouTube said simply the video had "been removed by the user".

 

However, Communications Minister Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said Bangkok's army-backed administration would continue to block YouTube (www.youtube.com) as two images deemed offensive remained.

 

"We want those photos off the site too," he told Reuters.

 

Earlier, Sitthichai accused YouTube, owned by Internet search engine Google, of being heartless and culturally insensitive for refusing to remove the file.

 

"We have told them how deeply offended Thais were by the clip, but they said there was much worse ridicule of President Bush on the site and they kept that there," he said.

 

"I don't think they really care how we feel. Thailand is only a tiny market for them."

 

The video showed grainy pictures of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, whom many of Thailand's 63 million people regard as a semi-divine "father of the nation", with crude graphics superimposed on his face.

 

The most offensive image to Thais was the imposition of a pair of woman's feet, the lowest part of the body, on his head.

 

YouTube, which has dominated the user-generated online-video market since it was founded in February last year, said it was disappointed by Bangkok's move and was "looking into the matter".

 

"YouTube reaches a wide global audience and strives to provide a community where people from around the world can express themselves by sharing videos in a safe and lawful manner," the company said in an e-mail response to Reuters.

 

Criticizing or offending royalty is a serious crime in Thailand. Those found guilty of lese majeste can be jailed for up to 15 years.

 

Last week, a 57-year-old Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in jail for spraying graffiti on pictures of the king on his birthday in December, a rare prison term for a foreigner.

 

However, the generals who ousted elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup last September have also used the lese majeste laws to stifle criticism of themselves or their actions.

 

Several Web sites calling into question the southeast Asian nation's 18th coup in 75 years of on-off democracy have been shut down by the army-installed government.

 

When reports of the offending royal YouTube clip emerged in Thailand, the number of views rocketed by 50,000 in less than 24 hours, according to the site's own data.

 

It generated a lively debate about freedom of expression although the main reaction from Thais was shock and outrage -- and torrents of abuse at the clip's creator, "paddidda", who is based in the United States."

 

Reuters via CNN

 

I wonder if the authorities will open access to Youtube again?

 

 

[Guest buaseng]

I wonder if the authorities will open access to Youtube again?

I very much doubt it, at least in the short term :-

 

YouTube incident becomes Internet crusade

 

By BangkokPost.com

A new video slideshow attacking His Majesty the King indicates that the dispute, fanned into worldwide front-page headlines by a Thai government ban on YouTube, may have only just begun.

 

YouTube and Google wiped out the last remnants of the original offensive video slideshow which was uploaded last Sunday to demean the monarch.

 

Some time early Friday morning Thailand time, the last remaining photo of the video in YouTube's search engine archive of the original video had disappeared from view.

 

But within an hour of the disappearance of the first video and its uploader, a subscriber using the name "thaifreespeech" and claiming improbably to live in Iceland had placed an all new video on YouTube, containing even more offensive images of His Majesty the King than the original.

 

The ban on YouTube will stay, officials said on Friday.

 

See: http://www.bangkokpost.net/topstories/tops...s.php?id=117906

[Guest pete1969]

This is sad news for me as I love You Tube. It has opened up a world of music artists from other countries that I would never find elsewhere. In addition, I recently found a You Tube video of my ex-BF performing at My Way (and performing one of my favorite songs too). You Tube is becoming as much of search tool for me as is Google. Plus, I email my current BF various You Tube videos I think he would like.

 

What saddens me even more is that do-gooders in others countries (like the idiot in Iceland) have no respect for the cultures of other people. What these idiot users do in posting such offensive images to Thais is as offensive as if someone posted videos of their mothers being raped. Les Majeste is just as offensive as that to most Thais and in Thailand is as serious a crime.

 

I don't know why the people at You Tube and Google don't understand they are breaking the law and committing a serious crime in Thailand by allowing such shocking images. No country is going to allow any International corporation to wantonly break their laws or to assist others, especially the country's own citizens, in doing so (well, in a case like this anyway). You Tube won't allow certain copyrighted material to be posted as it breaks the law. They don't allow pornography of any kind. I don't see why they feel they need to allow a video that breaks a major law in a country and bascially spits in the face (or worse) of a nation of 60 million.

 

Anyway, off my soap box. I am just angry that people's insensitivity to other cultures and a nation's laws will cost me what I consider a valuable entertainment resource.

 

Pete

[Gaybutton]

Here's the latest, from the BANGKOK POST:

_____

 

YouTube Users Escalate Battle

 

(BangkokPost.com, Agencies) - In-your-face users of the YouTube video-sharing service have placed at least seven new video attacks on His Majesty the King on the website in the two days since YouTube disappeared the one that triggered a blackout in Thailand.

 

The attacks on His Majesty also got cruder and ruder early on Saturday, and all referred to a government attempt to block views of the illegal videos by users in Thailand.

 

Earlier, YouTube indicated it would help Thailand block access to certain pages that contain clips offensive to its revered monarch instead of blacking out the whole site.

 

But YouTube listed seven crude videos attacking the monarch in its search engine as of Saturday morning Thailand time, each with a sample photo and a description.

 

Each of the videos had dozens or hundreds of comments, almost all of them censuring or attacking the users who had uploaded them to the user-controlled video archive service.

 

The appearance of newer, cruder videos made it clear that Thai government publicity for YouTube, in the form of front-page statements and the ban on YouTube, had merely served as a red flag to the anarchic segment of Internet users that always flocks to such free-speech issues.

 

The YouTube problem poses a major dilemma for the government, which does not have the ability to impose a total block on YouTube - although seeing the site is difficult for many users in Thailand - and which only escalates the issue every time it discusses a ban.

 

Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom told the Reuters news agency on Friday that the idea came during a phone call with a California-based government liason officer of Google Inc, which owns YouTube.

 

The site had refused to pull out a clip insulting His Majesty the King. That refusal led the military-backed government to entirely block access to YouTube on Wednesday.

 

"He said pulling out those clips would not be an effective way to stop the damage, since users could re-post them again," Mr. Sitthichai quoted his conversation with Google's Andrew McLaughlin, the firm's senior policy counsel.

 

"He said a more effective way would be to block certain pages not to be seen in Thailand," said Mr. Sitthichai. "It will be a few days before we lift the ban on the entire site."