Welcome back: YouTube rides the cyberwaves again

BANGKOK , Aug 31 (TNA) – After a five-month absence, popular YouTube is riding the cyberwaves back into the realm of Thailand.

Blocked from public access in the kingdom since April 3, Google-owned YouTube had carried materials which Thai authorities deemed offensive to the Thai monarch and people.

Minister for Information and Communication Technology Sittichai Pookaiyaudom reportedly said the ban was lifted Thursday after a combination technological and legal solution was reached, with YouTube developing a modified filter technology which allows it to screen materials available in Thai cyberspace.

YouTube is a public-access service worldwide which allows individuals to place what they like through its website. A US-based person using the pseudonym Paddidda placed a sequence of video clips considered insulting to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

According to Minister Sittichai, sensitive YouTube videos will not be accessible to Thai internet service providers.

The ICT minister who claimed to have banned only about 200 websites, 90 per cent of which featured pornography said that Thailand-based internet users are again allowed to access http://www.youtube.com, the popular video-sharing website, after it had been blocked for several months.

He stressed earlier that the government did not want to shun people’s freedom to Internet access but the clips deemed insulting the King was something that Thais could not tolerate.

TNA