Thailand blocks YouTube

Google declines to remove royal skit

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 4th April 2007 13:00 GMT

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NSFWIT Thailand today blocked access to YouTube when Google refused to remove a clip "mocking the country's revered monarch", Reuters reports.

The 44-second video, showing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has offended Thai Buddhists due mostly to "the juxtaposition of a pair of woman's feet, the lowest part of the body, above his head, the highest part of the body":

Thai communications minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom told Reuters "he had ordered a block of the entire site from Thailand after the ministry's attempts to get the offending page removed last week failed". He said: "Since Google has rejected our repeated requests to withdraw the clip, we can't help blocking the entire site in Thailand. When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban."

Thailand takes its monarchy pretty seriously. Last week, Swiss citizen Oliver Rudolf Jufer copped a 10-year jail sentence for "five acts of lese majeste", specifically "defacing images of the king". He was apparently a little hacked off at not being able to buy alcohol on a national holiday, and rather ill-advisedly decided to take it out on posters of Bhumibol Adulyadej. ®

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