When Will Be Allowed To Visit Youtube Again?

[joka]

Hello all,

Well, it's been a couple months now, and I thought this "misunderstanding" had been cleared up. Does anyone know when and if we will be able to access YouTube again.

[targaman]

If you have an offshore ISP you can access it through their browser.

[jyoung142]

If you have an offshore ISP you can access it through their browser.

Would a VPN on laptop in Thailand allow you to see YouTube again? Any suggestions for a personal VPN solution that works from Thailand? - Thanks

[A_Traveller]

Hello all,

Well, it's been a couple months now, and I thought this "misunderstanding" had been cleared up. Does anyone know when and if we will be able to access YouTube again.

No it hasn't, I'm afraid. Both sides dug in and the YouTube position was freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and here it was this is culturally unacceptable, we don't care if you make fun of your leaders.

Further the IT minister made it clear that YouTube was an unimportant site, ignoring the considerable usage as a conduit for training etc..

Regards

/edit typo //

Edited June 15, 2007 by A_Traveller

[solo siam]

Hello all,

Well, it's been a couple months now, and I thought this "misunderstanding" had been cleared up. Does anyone know when and if we will be able to access YouTube again.

No it hasn't, I'm afraid. Both sides dug in and the YouTube position was freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and here it was this is culturally unacceptable, we don't care if you make fun of your leaders.

Further the IT minister made it clear that YouTube was an unimportant site, ignoring the considerable usage as a conduit for training etc..

Regards

/edit typo //

Training? - Thats a weird one.

At the end of the day Thais are very culturally sensitive, from their view youtube hosted a very bad video and wouldn't take it down, so they blocked the site - Nothing wrong there, YouTube can't keep hiding behind a "we don't own the videos" veil - Its hosted on their site, It's their responsibility even if that means having real people (YouTube employees) to Vet all the videos. They don't do this because they wouldn't be able to grow at the heady speed they are, I'm pretty sure once some terrorist training videos are on there, or the Movie Industry find a way to make problems we will see more issues with sites like YouTube.

[A_Traveller]

Hello all,

Well, it's been a couple months now, and I thought this "misunderstanding" had been cleared up. Does anyone know when and if we will be able to access YouTube again.

No it hasn't, I'm afraid. Both sides dug in and the YouTube position was freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and here it was this is culturally unacceptable, we don't care if you make fun of your leaders.

Further the IT minister made it clear that YouTube was an unimportant site, ignoring the considerable usage as a conduit for training etc..

Regards

/edit typo //

Training? - Thats a weird one.

At the end of the day Thais are very culturally sensitive, from their view youtube hosted a very bad video and wouldn't take it down, so they blocked the site - Nothing wrong there, YouTube can't keep hiding behind a "we don't own the videos" veil - Its hosted on their site, It's their responsibility even if that means having real people (YouTube employees) to Vet all the videos. They don't do this because they wouldn't be able to grow at the heady speed they are, I'm pretty sure once some terrorist training videos are on there, or the Movie Industry find a way to make problems we will see more issues with sites like YouTube.

Why weird, I know of several companies which use YouTube as a conduit. It's an efficient method to provide easily accessible content to individuals. Seem to recall some schools were using it in a similar manner.

Regards

[higgy88]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that if the Thai gov't wanted to they could just block the offending video(s), but they chose to block the whole site instead. I don't really remember where I may have heard that from.

[A_Traveller]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that if the Thai gov't wanted to they could just block the offending video(s), but they chose to block the whole site instead. I don't really remember where I may have heard that from.

Correct, apparently during the initial discussions internally it was identified that, for reasons that escape me, they did not have the expertise to block just the video. They therefore decided to block the site, further this was reinforced, after YouTube said they would not remove the content since it was not in breach of their content rules.

The other problem arose when this became public in that copycats immediately started to post other clips, possibly offensive or just linked to the video as a means of raising their profile {music videos etc.}. End result the present impass and here I suspect we will stay. As I mentioned elsewhere, Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner haven't made it in 50 years.

Regards

[solo siam]

If they would have blocked the video, then it would have just showed up elsewhere 5 minutes later, and so on... Much easier to just block the site.

I've never heard of schools or corporations using Youtube, why not just use CD's, DVD's etc... most schools and corporations work hard to STOP their staff and students from accessing things like YouTube.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that if the Thai gov't wanted to they could just block the offending video(s), but they chose to block the whole site instead. I don't really remember where I may have heard that from.

Yes and no.. Thailands firewall is not sophisticated like China's to do this on the fly and catch offending content. YT did remove the material, issue an apology and offered to build them a filter so they could edit and would use searching and matching expressions to automatically limit content. Then the Thai's made more demands like turning over the identity of the poster so they could prosecute or persecute. YT most likely is aware of the case where Yahoo helped China track a guy and he got thrown in prison and treated very badly and it was a huge sore spot the company does not want to repeat and YT doesn't want to go down that path either. BTW the posters identity might not have been available anyway without some search warrants to other ISP's to track the individual.

This continued ban is just a smokescreen for curtailing free speech and an attempt by the IT minister to build a reputation on protecting the King. He isn't interested in resolving this through censorship as he is interested in wearing a political badge and making his statement.

China blocks the YT site as do other countries like Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Myanmar, Tunisia... If you want to find the countries that are suppressing free speech just look to see if they allow YT... It's a good barometer.

[YaiJung]

I believe there might be other reasons than the one they are using now Many unpleasant things about the truth are exposed when people are free to speak and now see for themselves on sites like YT. Next time u are free to look, try searching tak bai...

[El Taco Loco]

Some of the vpns available have a bandwidth limit and some do not. I use a USA based and a Dutch based vpn. USA is faster and more reliable. But if your isp is slow, so will the vpn.

If anyone is interested, pm me.

If you have an offshore ISP you can access it through their browser.

Would a VPN on laptop in Thailand allow you to see YouTube again? Any suggestions for a personal VPN solution that works from Thailand? - Thanks