You Tube is blocked in Thailand

Norseman · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:01 pm Post subject: You Tube is blocked in Thailand

I tried to access YouTube.com today.
What I got is this link: http://cyberinspector.org/iiiiikkkiiiiikkiikkkii/index2.php

I just love the cyber inspectors!!!
Can anybody in Thailand access YouTube?
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Jockey · Ace Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Posts: 1851

Bad things could easily put on youtube which wouldnt' look good for the powers that be so one can understand the ban, like everything else they are banning right now in preparation for...

STEVE G · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:19 am Post subject:

BANGKOK (IHT): The military-appointed government of Thailand has blocked access to YouTube and several other Internet sites in a crackdown on material seen as denigrating the country's monarch, officials said Wednesday.
"We have blocked YouTube because it contains a video insulting to our king," Winai Yoosabai, head of the censorship unit at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, said.
The Thai ban on YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site, came after YouTube's owner, Google, refused to remove the video clip, the communications minister, Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, said.
The Thai crackdown follows similar moves elsewhere this year against YouTube, whose 16-month-old Internet site allows people to easily upload, share and watch video clips.
Last month, Turkey cut off access to the site for several days to block a video deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Insulting Ataturk is a crime in Turkey.
A court in Brazil ordered YouTube access blocked for several days in January after clips of a prominent model cavorting in the sea with her lover kept reappearing on the site.
The bans come as governments and private companies grapple with the posting of controversial and copyrighted material on the Internet.
YouTube was purchased by Google in November for $1.6 billion. Analysts have suggested that YouTube could become a major liability for the search company. Viacom, the owner of MTV, recently announced a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube.
Acknowledging that the Internet presented "new and unique cultural challenges," Julie Supun, head of global communications for YouTube, said the company was "disappointed" that the site had been blocked in Thailand.
"We are currently looking into the matter," Supun said Wednesday in a statement. "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."
Since coming to power with the overthrow of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last September, the military government has banned Web sites, instructed the news media to minimize reporting about Thaksin and has at times blacked out broadcasts of international news channels like CNN. Reporting in newspapers remains lively and apparently uncensored, except when it comes to criticism of the monarchy.
Sitthichai told The Associated Press that the government would continue its crackdown. "It's not about freedom of expression," he said. People who create Web sites insulting the monarchy "are abusing their rights and clearly don't mean well for the country."
But the government also appears to have broadened its crackdown to sites critical of the September coup, including www.saturdayvoice.com, which is run by a group demanding that coup leaders transfer power to a democratically elected government.
For the technologically savvy in Thailand and other places where the site is blocked, accessing YouTube is still possible.
Users could bypass the ban by connecting through a phone number in a foreign country or using "anonymizer" Web sites that mask the underlying codes of the censored Web sites, said David Bicknell, a telecommunications consultant based in Bangkok.
Winai said his department was seeking the person who used the name Paddidda to post the clip of the king, which was viewed more than 16,000 times.
Pornnapa Wongakanit contributed reporting from Bangkok.

FutureResident · Banned Joined: 25 Mar 2007 Posts: 42

Golly, I think that lving in Thailand is like living in you tube.. I know HH is a bit more quite but a trip up to Bangkok and a few strools should sipce thaat up!

ozuncle · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:21 am Post subject:

A very stupid childish video.
It seems strange to me that it was not removed from the site as soon as it was requested by Thai authorities.
The govt acted very quickly to ban you tube.
AND SO THEY SHOULD.
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Farang · Guru Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 661

'
Let me guess: The former Big Thief was trying to air his message through Youtube. In order to
quiet him down the Junta had a questionable video made and loaded up so that they have a
sanctimonious and righteous reason for shutting down the by-now-pro-Taksin-site. There's
poetic justice in this game of musical chairs. Taksin wielded the scissors of censorship at the
lightest reason. Now he's muzzled by his own device.

The whole drama has evolved from a thriller to farce and is now tailspinning towards tragedy.
,

ozuncle · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:31 am Post subject:

No Farang.
It was nothing political.
Just a childish prank which happens to denigrate His Majesty.
If Google would not delete it I believe the Govt had every right to close you tube down in Thailand.
Good on them for sticking to their morals and principals.
Some of us Western countries are weak and have let our principals slide dramatically over the last 20 years or so.
Freedom of speach/press is OK within reason.
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PJG · Specialist Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 177

Most Dictators and oppressive regimes see no reason for freedom of the press/speach.

The point is that censorship can easily turn into repression.

Jim · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:07 pm Post subject:

The story even featured in this morning's Financial Times. The reverence for the King has been attracting interest over here since the Swiss guy was jailed. Interestingly, the vast majority I speak with understand the Thai attitude. The spin in the papers here about the YouTube ban though is that this is an anti Thaksin move.
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Farang · Guru Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 661

Burger · Ace Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 1114 Location: Hua Hin

Freedom of speach is one thing.

Insulting the King, who is adored by the Thai people probably in a way we Westerners do not fully understand, is another thing.

If YouTube were asked and could not be arsed to removed the clip, then Thailand is righ tto tell them to f*** o** IMO.

Burger

hollygolightly1 · Member Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 68

Why should youtube remove a video deemed offensive by one country? By that logic, we could censor videos of people eating bacon, stripping, drinking beer, zapping mosquitoes... they could all be offensive to someone. I think censorship is a dangerous path. Who decides? And how many of these farangs who think it's ok have bought the movie The Queen recently?? I think it's more of an insult to the King to block access to the site; I'm sure he can stand a little satire. Hasn't he said he doesn't believe the royals should be above criticism?

prcscct · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's army-backed government accused online video-sharing Web site YouTube on Thursday of being heartless and culturally insensitive for refusing to remove a clip mocking the country's revered king.

"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," Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom told Reuters.

"I don't think they really care how we feel. Thailand is only a tiny market for them," said Sitthichai, who ordered the entire YouTube Web site (www.youtube.com) blocked in Thailand on Wednesday until its owner, Google Inc, removed the clip.

The 44-second video shows 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 Thai Buddhists 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 military coup in September have also used the lese majeste laws to stifle criticism of themselves or their actions.

Since the coup, 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.

Farang · Guru Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 661

ozuncle · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject:

Farang wrote "Well,well,well,not political eh??"

Who cares if you think it was political.
Have you seen it?

The fact is that ALL Thai people would be very dissapointed if this sort of crap was allowed.
The vast majority would be furious if they saw it!!!!!!!!

As I was.
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