Thailand’s YouTube blockade update
UPDATE: H.M. the King has pardoned the Swiss man who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for defacing portrait.
Can we please lift the YouTube ban!
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Because there seems to be so little media coverage (and no critical reaction towards the Thai government’s action) on what I personally consider a serious matter, I’m taking time out from reading about projector specs (long story) to write a summary about what’s going down with YouTube over here in this overly heated country. Perhaps some may find it interesting?
1. Late last Wednesday night we couldn’t access YouTube. The url wouldn’t resolve and our first reaction was like “whaaa??? YouTube is down?! how does THAT happen?”
2. Thursday morning and we were reading our usual morning news and Mark found out before me: “yeah, the government just banned YouTube” It was all over the web. The BBC was quick to report it right away.
3. Turned out it was lèse majesté. There was an insulting video clip on YouTube, supposedly an image of King Bhumibol‘s face were shown graffitied over and juxtapose with a foot (which Thais consider it a low and degrading act to point things or each other with). According to subsequent news article I found on Bangkok Post and The Nation, the ministry of Information and Communication Technology, ICT, had made a request to YouTube to remove the offending clip a while back but YouTube refused.
So the ICT said that since YouTube refused to cooperate, their only option is to block Thailand’s access to the entire website.
4. To give you some background: Thai people LOVE their Kings, and especially for this one. Every Monday, more than 70% of the population wears yellow shirts because someone had an idea of selling yellow shirts for the King’s 60th reign celebration. Now, every Monday you will spot a sea of yellow-shirted people. Every TV anchormen/women wears the yellow t-shirt to show love and respect to the king. All government workers wear it. And you can also spot them randomly all over even when it’s not Monday. It almost has a weird communism smell to it, except people do it out of sheer will. A taxi driver once told me he owned 14 yellow shirts.
5. And so, they do find this video offending, even though maybe about 2% or less of the population would actually know what this video clip looks like. Because our society is a seniority system, whenever the guys in charge say something everyone nods their head and follows without questioning. The next night, my little sister went on her favorite Thai web forum and found that there were more people in supporting of the ban than we thought.
6. It would be good to know that most Thai laws usually have loop holes and sometimes aren’t even enforce that seriously. The one and only strict rule applied without exception is lese majeste. A few weeks ago a Swiss man was sentenced to jail for drunkenly spray painting over the King’s poster. I kind of think he probably deserves some of punishment b/c there is such a thing as being culturally sensitive, but time in Thai jail is a bit harsh.
7. The next day, on April 5, Bangkok Post reported that offending YouTube video and its user disappeared. But those who really wanted to see it could have done so through a foreign proxy. The BKK Post presumed that the ban would be lifted.
8. The blockade on YouTube remained, and the ICT also shut down popular political forums citing the reasons of 1. insulting to the monarchy and 2. promoting division in the country. A forum I usually read had posted the news report on the YouTube block but closed the discussion area. Local news media talked about the ban, but could not show or describe the video because they would then be guilty of lese majeste.
9. YouTube refused to take down videos that are not in violation of its policy and said that it will not assist censorship. Instead, YouTube offered to educate the ministry of how the site works and would rather have Thailand block the individual clips. (update according to this blog YouTube denied the allegations, thanks Paul) Thailand accused Google of playing double standards where it cooperated with the Chinese government on even a larger scale of Internet censorship.
10. Several copy-cat videos mocking the Thai King has sprung on YouTube since then. And I am sure there are several more to come.
11. It has been a week, and the YouTube url still wouldn’t resolve. If the ICT insists on banning YouTube until offending clips are removed, then I’m afraid we will never see YouTube again.
…
I will repeat that there is such a thing as being culturally sensitive. I recognize that some countries do not enjoy the privilege that the West called freedom of speech, and it is a cultural thing that probably shouldn’t be force fed onto societies that do not have the same Western standards. And for the record, I do think that Thai people revering the King is a good thing. If it wasn’t for the monarch, this country would be either a twin sister of Burma or have as much stability as the Congo.
However, banning all incriminating lese majeste materials to reach the Thai people is an insult to the people’s intellect. It is also a sign that Thailand would rather regress in the name of conserving old values than to evolve with the modern world, to the point of blinding its own people.
I mean, ok, you’re offended. So? Make counter-videos. Upload it. Blast the user. Stop watching. Something wouldn’t be so popular if not provoked otherwise.
My first instinct after the initial annoyance settled was to find a group who would speak out against the ban, see what they are up to, and maybe I can help sign petitions or something…. idunno, like, call-my-Congressmen type stuff. But I’m too much of an American, of course. To my knowledge, there is no local media-rights group or any political action taken by the people against the ban of the most popular video sharing site in the world. What ever the government says or decides – it will be. There’s not even an ounce of public dissent on this matter.
I don’t even know if an election is gonna help.
and you know the most ironic thing….
In his birthday speech in 2005, the King said in his usual cryptic ways that he wouldn’t take lese majeste charge that seriously anymore.
YouTube denies all those press reports suggesting that it’s teaching Thai censors how to block individual videos as opposed to its whole site.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13665
Paul McNamara on 10 April 2007I don’t think Thai people would make a video to counter it. We love peace and we just want to be in peace. To make that youtube video accessible may stir more contention and it’s better to ban. Anyway, i don’t think the majority of Thai people would care about freedom of speech….it’s not that big deal, really.
Waan on 11 April 2007No, they don’t care about freedom of speech, I know that.
They also seem to not care about being given freedom access to information, which essentially means freedom to education…
…sure has a bright future, don’t you think?
ann on 11 April 2007How many yellow shirts do YOU own?
nalis on 11 April 2007oh please.
get over it.
your view is self centric and detrimental. obviously youve explained the thai people as having an “unusual” affection for the thai king.
lets see…
we americans seem to have great esteem for a holiday called christmas.
i wonder what would happen if say, there were a video of a boy urinating on a burning cross with jesus on it, posted on youtube?
freedom of speech, you say?
or uproar?
i think youtube would remove that video in a jiffy.
please, get over yourself. the thai government acted appropriately and im encouraged to see that they will not take lightly such desecration on their culture.
i highly doubt it to be an insult to the intellect of the people from guarding them from such trash but rather a stand for decency.
bob the builder on 11 April 2007It’s funny that you would say my view if self-centric (and anyway, last time i checked it’s still my blog, not some grand journalist piece catered to the mass), while citing “decency” because decency is subjective at best.
And, please… if you wanna talk about “decency” in Thailand — don’t even get me started about the rampant sex trade on the streets of bangkok. Perhaps you, bob the builder, would like to be grope by an incredibly beautiful-looking transvestite, visit brothels run by the Police, or browse through hardcore porn movies on the street sidewalks — these are all decent things we have in Thailand.
But those things aside…
A stand for decency over a handful of clips does not warrant for a ban of 100 million video clips served by YouTube everyday. The government’s implementation of the ban is draconian and technically impossible to keep over the long run. Maybe I’m wrong, but they’re a bunch of old conservatives going by the books who lack the understanding of the Internet-driven culture — more than the mere technology of being connected, it is the mindset that comes with aid of said technology.
For instance, if the Thai government chooses to ban a book that it deemed inappropriate for Thais, there wouldn’t really be a backlash of copy cat books to come out in the market. Video on the Internet is a different matter. As we see here, the original video was removed, but someone else could easily remix it and post another, as they did. Not to mention the fact the YouTube isn’t the only video sharing site.
The Thai government, if it wants to continue down this road, will soon need to set up an operation like the Chinese government to censor Internet content — not only it is restricting to its people’s freedom to knowledge, it is also not sustainable for the Thai government. There are far more serious issues they need to work on around here.
while I agree that it is a desecration on our culture, there also needs to be an understanding and adapting to new culture (and this is what Thai Kings have done in the course of Thai history), otherwise, we wouldn’t be going anywhere.
and I didn’t say anything about an unusal affection for the King — in fact, this affection Thai people have for their King is as usual as having rice in their meal. The point was made to put in perspective why such video would be offending.
so…
even though i find your comment highly irritating, ultra conservative and simply one-sided, i don’t censor it because i think it’s important to have opinions.
but dont’ tell me to get over it like you know what i’m talking about.
ann on 12 April 2007Oh man! i read about this, but ignored ’cause i thought something so ridiculous woulnd’t stick, and iit seems im wrong… so this is actually true and still happening? dude, this is the XXI century, and i cant believe there are actually comments supporting the ban. What perfect little robots some of your countrymen seem to be (sorry to sound harsh).
juan ospina on 18 April 2007I look up Thailand in search and there are hundreds of positive videos for Thailand that makes people want to travel here, now a couple of bad videos is having Thailand miss hundreds of positive ones , the bad guy is winning and hurting Thailand because alot of people are saying they don’t want to come here. I am bummed because a a professional musician in the USA that lives in Thailand I work everyday on my site , all my money has went to Thailand buying cars, homes, teaching kids to play for free, helped schools, etc, I love Thailand and there King, he is a wonderful man that keeps Thailand together , but now Im out of biz I cant write my fans back and I know I’m not the only one.You know 4 of my music videos I show pictures and promote peaceful Thailand and everyone wanted to come, now they hear the ban ,and there thinking different. Please don’t let the bad guy win , there’s so much positive videos on Thailand on you tube….why us good people have to suffer. Mitch
Mitch on 18 April 2007[...] And …nah, there has been no more news about the YouTube block, when it’s gonna get un-blocked, or even any update from the YouTube spokesperson herself. And maybe I’m just not that into the scene, but no, there’s still no substantial public reaction against the ban of YouTube website in Thailand except for lenghty rants on forums. And you still find people in support of the total ban, because, well, because it’s just one of those Thai things. us, the happy-to-regress people. [...]
miserychick dot net | v6 » » YouTube, blocked for 2 weeks and counting on 19 April 2007Just as there are lots of people in Thailand that love their king there are lots of a-holes in the USA who could care less if they insult someones culture as long as they can feel good about themselves if it were their mother you were insulting that would be a different story. My best wishes for getting this resolved.
Atentio on 21 June 2007“If all mankind were of one opinion, and only one person were of a contrary opinion, Mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power would be justified in silencing mankind.” – John Stuart Mill – ‘On Liberty’
Mitch,
I know how you feel also. My business here in Phuket uses websites like WordPress, Bebo and Facebook to promote it. Now Thailand has banned WordPress because of some detrimental posts about Thailand which they believe will affect tourism. To be honest one of my posts may have been one of them.
Though I didn’t insult the king and never would I did insult those Thai people that do not realise everytime they rip someone off, or provide poor service, or charge for a drink they didn’t have, or advertise something the customer will never get after they pay, they are only pushing tourists away.
I have lived here for 7 years and over those years have seen many sad practices by Thai people. I have heard from many foreigners with elusions that Thai people are friendly, and sincere, and go out of their way to help people. Sadly though after living here for that long and operating my business having to pay more for everything than Thai people I know what Thailand and most of their people are really like.
It’s not as nice as most people think it is but it is easier than living in our country’s where hardship is actually more noticeable because most of us struggle more than Thai people in our own countries.
Jerry on 24 August 2007