Filed under: Video, Web services, Google
Thailand withdraws YouTube lawsuit
The will they or won't they flirtation between Thailand and Google continues, with Thailand dropping it's lawsuit against YouTube after Google agreed to remove offensive video clips.When users began to upload videos mocking the king of Thailand, officials blocked access to YouTube in that country. After a series of talks, Google executives believed they'd reached a solution, offering to block access to the offensive videos from within Thailand. Removing the videos entirely wouldn't do much good, they said, because users would just upload more videos.
Apparently that wasn't good enough, because last week Thailand filed a lawsuit against Google, which was apparently enough to convince the company to just take down the videos. 12 videos have been removed so far.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ian said 2:26PM on 5-11-2007
Why would you decide to show this video mocking the King of Thailand?
In Thailand this King is held in extremely high respect and recently his health has been quite a controversial subject. i.e. Don't ask. Still the possibility of the King admonishing local Politicians is probably all that keeps the opposing factions going into a full scale conflict, which would be disatrous for the people of Thailand. Thus it's distasteful to highlight his video. Thailand isn't like a Western Country were we daily mock Politicians, largely because they deserve it. Show some tact and taste guys!
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James said 5:16PM on 5-11-2007
Jesus, have these guys never been through 3rd grade? If you fly into a huff every time somebody picks on you, they're just going to do it more. Unless the cultural divide is even wider than I thought, I suspect that taking legal action to censor videos of political dissent will just inspire more dissent. Way to go, genius.
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Wolfrider said 6:20PM on 5-11-2007
While I understand Ian's point of view, and agree that a little cultural relativity would go a long way on the internet, I have to say I'm pretty disgusted at the decision the remove the videos. The internet is all about free speech (no matter how inane or offensive that speech can be) and frankly, Thailand has no business attempting to control what non-Thailanders do online.
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Ian said 6:53PM on 5-11-2007
The cultural divide re any mocking of the Monarch, in Thailand, is massive. It's absolutely the WORST thing anyone could do, because he is held in such high regard. He holds that Country together and there are forces at work trying to tear the place apart. I agree that the Government attempt to sue Google was the wrong path and they seem to have agreed by dropping the suit. But just as Thailand learned a lesson, so should we. Google allowing the video to run first time upset the Thai's a lot, but it's understandable that Westerners would not understand the offense caused. But once it became an issue, we should show some understanding and feeeling for the Thai's wishes. Thus for this forum to think it's funny to show the video is very very sad IMHO.
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Jamar said 2:33PM on 5-12-2007
"and there are forces at work trying to tear the place apart"
You mean like the military coup that already happened with little damage to the daily functions of the government? (as heard from a few tourists and locals alike that I speak to) Or is there still more conflict occuring?
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