Google’s video service YouTube denies that it is teaching the government of Thailand how to block individual YouTube videos as part of ongoing negotiations aimed at lifting that government’s total ban of the Web site.
The impression, a major component of worldwide press coverage on Monday, was triggered by an Associated Press report published online by publications such as USA Today, BusinessWeek, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and dozens of others. Bloggers fanned the flames.
The first paragraph of the AP story read:
BANGKOK, Thailand – YouTube offered Saturday to “educate” Thai officials who want to block individual clips from its video-sharing service, hoping to end an impasse that arose after a slideshow mocking the country’s revered king appeared online.
And, adding to the confusion was this quote attributed to a YouTube executive.
“While we will not take down videos that do not violate our policies, and will not assist in implementing censorship, we have offered to educate the Thai ministry about YouTube and how it works,” said Julie Supan, head of global communications for YouTube. “It’s up to the Thailand government to decide whether to block specific videos, but we would rather that than have them block the entire site.”
Puzzled by the apparent contradiction between “will not assist” and “have offered to educate” – and seeing how it was being interpreted online – I contacted YouTube for clarification. I asked whether they were actually teaching the Thai government how to block individual videos or simply explaining Google’s standard operating procedures.
Turns out to be the latter, at least according to a company spokesperson: “The reference to ‘educate’ should be taken to mean that YouTube is working to explain YouTube’s terms of use and policies to Thai officials.”
Yes, that could be spin … but I don’t think so.
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