Tech Shout!

The Thai government has continued in its crackdown on the Internet by ordering one of Thailand’s most popular chat Web sites to shut its political forum for national security reasons. This shutdown took place just days after popular video uploading Web site YouTube was blocked for certain videos that openly insulted the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The political chat room of the Web site, Pantip was closed yesterday soon after authorities ordered its creators to temporarily pull the forum off the Internet. This chat room frequently carried postings that criticized leaders of a September coup and the currently military-installed government.

However, YouTube has been blocked ever since Wednesday last week as many users had posted videos that mocked the Thai King. Apparently, Google, which is the owner of the popular video-sharing Web site, has refused to remove the videos, but, he did say that the company is working with the Thai government to resolve this issue.

YouTube and its owner, Google, both have their headquarters in the United States, where such clips are generally protected by the First Amendment.

Pantip.com had initially posted a notice saying that its political forum, known as the Rajdamnoen Room, was suspended at the ministry’s request for “national security” reasons. But, later on this message was withdrawn.

Pantip.com’s founder, Wanchat Padungrat said that he had found no postings that insulted the monarchy and did not understand the reason for the government’s ban. He also said that the ministry did not specify which messages were offensive and implied that the military-installed government might have been offended by anti-coup postings.

Why has this become such a big issue, you may ask? Well, if and when someone does insult the monarchy in Thailand, this criminal offense is known as lese majeste. In fact, just last month, a Swiss man was imprisoned for 10 years for vandalizing portraits of the King in northern Thailand.

Today, Pantip.com has called upon its members to post messages condemning Google for not removing the video clips that mocked the king. As of now, there are messages from over a 1000 people, including one that said that Google’s reaction had really hurt the people of Thailand and showed a great deal of disrespect for the country’s culture and traditions.