YouTube said Saturday it has offered to "educate" Thai authorities about how the popular video-sharing service works in the hope of ending a ban on the site over videos mocking Thailand's revered king.
The company had spoken with Thai communications minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudoom about the ban, which was imposed Wednesday after a user posted a video deemed here as offensive to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, YouTube spokeswoman Julie Supan said.
"Minister Sitthichai reported that his government is inflexible on the blocking of individual objectionable videos, and that the ministry's technical people have difficulty understanding how to block individual videos," she said in an email to AFP.
"While we will not take down videos that do not violate our policies, and will not assist in implementing censorship, we have offered to educate the Thai ministry about YouTube and how it works," she said. "It's up to the Thailand government to decide whether to block specific videos, but we would rather that than have them block the entire site," she added.
Thailand's communications ministry said it was still deciding how to proceed, but was willing to consider censoring individual videos rather than the entire site. "We insist that the clips considered offensive must be removed from the website," said communications ministry spokesman Vissanu Meeyoo.
"We will look into the technical possibilities of blocking individual web pages without blocking the entire site," Vissanu added. But the difficulty for censors in blocking individual videos became increasingly clear as new clips continued to be posted throughout the week.
Some videos mocked the king with graphic imagery, but others offered earnest commentary about freedom of speech and Thailand's strict laws against offending the king. The site, accessed from Bangkok through a foreign server, now has at least 10 clips connected to the controversy.
Although the original clip has been removed by the user who created it, some others are similar, showing pictures of the king next to images of feet - seen as deeply offensive in Thailand. Others have digitally altered the king's face to make him look like a monkey, or edited his picture to include him in graphic sexual images.
But some were simple videos of individuals expressing their concern about the free speech issues raised by the ban, part of a fierce debate that has erupted on the Internet message boards in Thailand and around the world.
Media freedom watchdogs have condemned the ban, saying it underscores the military government's effort to censor political dialogue on the Internet. Thailand has blocked some 45,000 websites, according to the group Freedom Against Censorship Thailand.