YouTube vs. The Thai Government

In what is becoming an interesting study on censorship on a worldwide scale, the question that must be asked is, does YouTube have the power to threaten an entire government system?

After officials in Thailand shut down YouTube in their country after the directors of the popular video-sharing site initially refused the officials' request to remove what they considered to be a highly offensive slideshow mocking their king, the online video hub has become a bastion for free speech.

The slideshow which prompted the Thai government's blockade of YouTube used photographs of King Bhumibol Adulvadej superimposed with different insulting images. With the Thai national anthem providing the soundtrack, the slideshow moved through pictures of the king under such imagery as feet, thought of as extremely dirty and considered especially offensive by Thai culture.

The video has since been removed, by user according to the message, but the still image that marked the video of the king still sits where the video once was and Thai officials vow to maintain the ban of YouTube until that last image is removed from the site as well.

YouTube is only one of several websites that have been blocked in Thailand for being thought of as insulting to the king. The internet forum Ratchadamnoen Room was shut down after Thai officials decided that the opinions on the site posed "a threat to national security." It raises questions of freedom in a country where the sitting interim government (installed after a September coup overthrowing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) is coming under increasing criticism. It also raises questions regarding whether the shutting down of sites such as YouTube and forums such Ratchadamnoen Room are motivated by security concerns, or if the sitting Thai government fears any site on which ex-Prime Minister Shinawatra could keep in the public eye and maintain supporters in Thailand.

Despite the government's intentions in banning the site, the ban may have had the opposite effect in every country except their own. After the site was blocked in Thailand and word of the ban started to spread to other countries, viewership of the video jumped to more than forty thousand views in one day, reaching 66,553 views before the video was finally pulled from the site.

YouTube's representatives have expressed a desire to meet with officials in Thailand in the hopes of coming to some sort of accord allowing Thai officials to block videos they deem offensive, but not blocking the whole site. Whether Thai officials will agree to the meeting is still up in the air, but the public opinion is in. Many new videos mocking King Bhumibol Adulvadej have popped up in response to the government ban. So, at least for now, freedom of speech rules on YouTube.