Tech Shout!

YouTube, the online video sharing Web site has become hugely popular ever since its launch way back in 2005. However, along the way, the Google-owned Web site has encountered an innumerable amount of bad publicity in the form of copyright issues and bans due to offensive material.

Some time ago, we had reported about the lift of a four-month ban on YouTube by the Thai Government. Now, Thailand has put YouTube in the fire once again, as it now wants to block clips that accuse King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s top royal adviser General Prem Tinsulanonda, of masterminding the coup in September 2006.

These two video clips which have been deemed as offensive by the Thai Governement are together titled “The Crisis of Siam”.

One of them runs for 10 minutes and 42 seconds, while the other one for 6 minutes and 6 seconds. 6,469 people have already viewed the first clip, while the second part, posted two days ago, has been viewed by 2,498 as of 4.45pm of Friday.

Such allegations against Prem, now Privy Council chief, have been made by supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during demonstrations and denied repeatedly by the generals and the government they appointed.

“Pa has been through such allegations many times and everyone knows what the truth is,” Prem’s spokesman, Vice Admiral Prajun Tampratheep, said of the 87-year-old former leader.

What’s more; both these videos are narrated in Thai, but have English subtitles to match.

According to Yanaphon Youngyuen, head of the justice ministry’s cyber-crime department, “In the next couple of days, we will seek a court order to block those links deemed to cause public confusion and threaten national security.”

Yanaphon also added that the Thai Government would only block the two video clips, and not the entire YouTube Web site.