Mass Media ; Censorship

When is censorship really necessary? This is one question that not only the person who is in charge of censoring struggles with, even civilians like us are both affected and bothered with what is being censored and what is not.

Taking up the recent example of Thailand blocking YOUTUBE for a clip that mocks the Thai King, the entire site was blocked from the citizens of Thailand, as GOOGLE has not agreed to remove it from YOUTUBE. In this case, the government was the middleman and was in charge of "censoring" this video clip for the Thai people, while GOOGLE is the "protector" of the general public who surfs on YOUTUBE. Thus sparking the argument on who is right, Thailand officials or GOOGLE?

Indeed, the Thai officials have plenty of valid reasons to block this entire site from their people. The Thais since history has been known for their immense respect for their king, the king is practically being worshipped. Actions such as stepping on the coin, which has the king’s face on it, can really upset the Thais. Needless to say, having a 44 seconds video that consists of King Bhumibol’s images being altered and insulted was far too much for the Thais to handle, especially the government. It was deemed as specially humiliating and disrespectful. Imagine the conflict and commotion that will arise if most Thais get to see this video. Hence, the government has reasons such as preventing conflicts from sparking, prevent negative influences and uphold positive values such as to respect their king. I am sure they would never want their next generation of Thais to be a bunch of adults that don't give two hoots about their king being insulted or worse off, be the ones who is insulting.

On the other hand, I perfectly understand why GOOGLE refuses to remove the video too. Being the most popular source of user-generated videos, by removing videos from the website, they are depriving users of their freedom to post videos. With a tagline, YOUTUBE - “Broadcast Yourself”, it is all about the freedom of expression on the internet. They are supposed to give users a platform to say whatever they want, therefore going against their own motto if they remove the video.

All in all, it is always a tough decision to make. Nonetheless, being a third-party, I prefer standing in the safe side that is to prevent conflicts from happening. Which is to censor the video and protect the people. Thailand does not exactly have a small population so any hard feelings, which develop into conflicts, will have dramatic consequences. Thus I feel that we as individuals play an important role in the process of exercising our right in “freedom of speech” too. In this case, the user who posted the video is not tracked down. I feel that he plays a relatively large responsibility for causing such inconveniences, depriving the Thais of entertainment from YOUTUBE and giving the two parties a headache on censorship.