Google Forced to Address Censorship in Thailand
For about two months, the government of Thailand has been blocking access to YouTube, Google's video-sharing website. The government claimed that numerous videos broke the law regulating defamatory speech against their King.
Many questions arise from this demand of compliance to Google. Do they ignore the request and accept being blocked in the name of freedom of speech? Or, should they remove the offensive material in adherence with local law?
Turns out they took a path somewhere in between. Since some of the videos had been taken down by the posters and others were in violation of YouTube's "code of conduct," no decision relative to Thailand had to be made regarding them. Of the six remaining clips, Google agreed to deal with 4, citing violation of Thai law, but found that 2, in their opinion, were in accordance with local law and would remain available.
This has appeased the Thai government enough to drop most of their legal threats, but the legal action hasn't stopped with YouTube. The government is now turning to additional legislation to provide more regulation and filtering of their citizens' Intenet access.
The work of the ONI, which began five years ago, will be presented at the project's first public conference, taking place this Friday at St. Anne's College, University of Oxford. Stay tuned for podcasts of the conference events.
The ONI will also be launching its redesigned website on Friday, which will include 40 country studies, 8 regional overviews, and much more.
The ONI is a partnership of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University, and the Berkman Center.
Many questions arise from this demand of compliance to Google. Do they ignore the request and accept being blocked in the name of freedom of speech? Or, should they remove the offensive material in adherence with local law?
Turns out they took a path somewhere in between. Since some of the videos had been taken down by the posters and others were in violation of YouTube's "code of conduct," no decision relative to Thailand had to be made regarding them. Of the six remaining clips, Google agreed to deal with 4, citing violation of Thai law, but found that 2, in their opinion, were in accordance with local law and would remain available.
This has appeased the Thai government enough to drop most of their legal threats, but the legal action hasn't stopped with YouTube. The government is now turning to additional legislation to provide more regulation and filtering of their citizens' Intenet access.
The work of the ONI, which began five years ago, will be presented at the project's first public conference, taking place this Friday at St. Anne's College, University of Oxford. Stay tuned for podcasts of the conference events.
The ONI will also be launching its redesigned website on Friday, which will include 40 country studies, 8 regional overviews, and much more.
The ONI is a partnership of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University, and the Berkman Center.