Press group slams Google over YouTube deal in Thailand

A press advocacy group is "dismayed" about Google Inc.'s reported decision to block YouTube videos from viewers in Thailand that are considered inappropriate or illegal by that Asian government.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), calling Google's reported agreement with the Thai government "a censorship deal," said on Wednesday that the move creates "a dangerous precedent, which could have global implications for freedom of expression."

"There is a clear potential for abuse of people's right to information, which seems much more likely now [that] Google has demonstrated its willingness to collude with governments to effectively censor information," IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said in a statement.

Neither Google nor the Thailand Embassy in Washington, D.C., immediately responded to requests for comment.

On Friday and during the weekend, various news outlets reported from Bangkok that Thailand had lifted a five-month ban on YouTube for its residents after Google agreed to block videos the government finds objectionable.

In an article posted Friday, the International Herald Tribune quoted Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, Thailand's minister of information and communications technology, as saying that YouTube had agreed to block clips deemed offensive to Thai culture or that violate Thai law.

People accessing YouTube from outside of Thailand will be able to view the videos blocked in that country, the minister told the International Herald Tribune.

Thailand blocked all access to Google's YouTube, the world's most popular video-sharing site, in early April after someone posted a video the government considered insulting to the country's king.

Those found guilty of offending the monarchy face serious penalties in Thailand. Days before the YouTube incident, a Swiss national living in Thailand got slapped with a 10-year jail sentence for defacing images of the king.

This is the latest incident in which Google and other providers of Internet services, such as Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., find themselves criticized for censorship by human rights organizations, press advocacy groups, U.S. legislators and shareholders.

For example, several Internet companies have been criticized for agreeing to censor content in their China sites and search engines that the Chinese government finds objectionable.

Yahoo in particular has been blasted often for cooperating with the Chinese government and providing information that has led to the arrest of dissidents and journalists.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others invariably defend themselves saying that they must comply with the local laws of the countries in which they do business, and that governments must collaborate to establish international standards of operation.

Thailand recently introduced the Computer Crime Act, which gives authorities the power to seize the computers of people suspected of accessing or creating content deemed insulting or pornographic, according to the IFJ.

Activist, social worker and webmaster Sombat Bun-ngam-anong is currently serving a 12-day detention order for alleged defamation for violating the Act, the IFJ said in Wednesday's statement.

Also on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders, another international press watchdog group, reported that a Thai blogger named Pichai has been reportedly detained for the past 12 days, also for violating the Act, which this group says took effect on July 18.

The blogger's arrest "confirms our fears about the dangers of a law that is supposed to combat pornography but turns out to be a way of restricting and controlling press freedom," Reporters Without Borders charged.