So Thailand’s military-backed government has blocked all access to YouTube because the Google-owned video-sharing site has (so far) refused to buckle to demands that it remove a clip that mocks the country’s monarch.
Putting aside the obvious – that in this country we are allowed to mock our monarch – there are several aspects of the Reuters story reporting this development that I feel a need to call into question.
First, and the lesser of the two, there is this from Thailand’s Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom:
“Since Google has rejected our repeated requests to withdraw the clip, we can’t help blocking the entire site in Thailand,” said Sitthichai, a professor who said he had spent most of his academic life researching eavesdropping devices.
Researching what? … While I find this bit of biographical data fascinating – and you might think it would be a fine qualification for our own White House communications director – I am truly stumped as to what it has to do with YouTube, why the government official brought it up, or why the reporter chose to include it.
Then there was this nugget from the story:
YouTube, which has dominated the user-generated on-line video market since it was founded in February last year, carried a 44-second clip ridiculing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch, who is revered by all 63 million Thais.
Maybe I’ve just lived too long in a country where it’s tough to get majority agreement on the day of the week, but is it honestly possible that King Bhumibol Adulyadej is revered by each and every one of 63 million Thais?
Seems unlikely.
I mean somebody made the video – somebody using the name “paddidda” – and while it is by no means a certainty, it seems reasonable to suggest that the person taking the time to mock the monarch of Thailand would be Thai.
Or at least that a few of those 63 million Thais had to stifle a snicker.
