youtube: blocked in thailand

April 5th, 2007

youtube

It’s not Turkey or Brazil this time, Youtube has been blocked in Thailand. The site has not been accessible since yesterday. Instead it has been redirected to Ministry of ICTs. No reason has been given for the sudden restriction, although there’s speculation that it could be politically linked. Some users are gaining access by using proxy websites. Many Thai bloggers are now on a campaign to get Youtube reinstated.

Popularity: 28% [?]

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • del.icio.us
  • digg
  • Ma.gnolia
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Digg
  • Netscape
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
Posted by Deviant Filed in Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

5 Responses to “youtube: blocked in thailand”

  1. Yelle Says:
    April 5th, 2007 at 4:33 am

    Whoa. Have there been similar incidents of such censorship in the past?

  2. Deviant Says:
    April 6th, 2007 at 8:15 am

    Many in fact - our best friend - Sunit has been responsible for most of the blocks in Thailand. Sunit, however, works on having these restrictions on pornographic sites (part of his digital health campaign).

  3. Phil Butler Says:
    April 6th, 2007 at 10:46 am

    Hello! I was just reviewing your blog and ran across this post. I ran an article the other day about this UTOOB banning, I won’t Spam you wit the link but you can find it at Profy.
    Thailand is very fond of their King and someone on the U uploaded a very distasteful video (by Thai standards) basically insulting the King in the worst way (considering their religion).
    Well, U know what the Ugeeks said when the “country” asked them to remove it.

    My point was (and is) that we should really consider the cultures and norms of other places before we insult them, and that once UTOOOB’s attention was directed at the insulting video they probably should have removed it (I mean they do have a few gross ones to replace it with).

    So, now it is all controversial and freedom of speech and the rights of free citizens and donkeys is being brought to bear. If YouTOOOB is going to do business all over the world, it may be time to consider that everyone out there is not “down” with people bashing their leaders.

    I like your blog BTW. I may just write a post about you guys!

  4. Yelle Says:
    April 6th, 2007 at 6:07 pm

    But–but–this is YouTube! :-( It’s like…when they blocked Friendster in Dubai (for a while). Harsh.

  5. Yelle Says:
    April 6th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

    Thanks for shedding some light on the context of the blocking, Phil. I suppose that’s the risk you take when relying on user-generated content.

Leave a Reply