youtube.com blocked in Thailand

If you were looking for the perfect example of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, you've come to the right place. Thailand's MICT has now blocked all access to youtube.com, one of the world's most popular websites, due to a video mocking King Bhumibol.

The video, titled Bhumibol Adulyadej 2 and uploaded by a user nicknamed Paddidda, features photographs of the King defaced with computer-graphic caricatures.

MICT has also started blocking the various proxy servers, although most of them can't access video files anyway. However, before it was blocked many people did see it, as Paddidda's youtube.com page is full of vitriolic comments. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, just as youtube.com users are entitled to post crude or satirical videos. Watching a youtube.com video is an active choice: if we don't want to see it, we simply don't click on it. Adults should have both the freedom and the responsibility to make their own choices.

After Paddidda's initial video, several others have been produced in the same vein, most of which are even more directly disrespectful. The original video is unblocked at corriere.it [thank you to Filippo for this information], and several others are unblocked at video.google.com and ifilm.com.

Images from the videos on mashable.com, quomedia.diesis.it, and vleeptronz.blogspot.com have been blocked, though there are unblocked screengrabs at 20minutos.es, diregiovani.dol.it, excite.it, portalcolonense.com.ar, pub.tv2.no, volkskrantblog.nl, hirek.prem.hu, svt.se, rgsradio.com, zone-numerique.com, gseeker.com, and aftenbladet.se. (Search unblocked sites for "Bhumibol"; even the blocked images show up in images.google.com searches.)