Thailand canceled plans to sue Google

The Thai government abruptly canceled plans to sue Google after it agreed to remove video clips of insulting Thai King posted on YouTube's website.

Earlier, since April 4, the Thai government has stopped people in the country from accessing YouTube, the world's largest video-sharing site. The focus of the incident lies in the 12 video clips allegedly insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the YouTube site.

The Thai side has asked YouTube to urgently remove the above clips, but Google refuses.

" We have decided not to sue anymore, because Google has agreed to cooperate in deleting the above 12 clips ," said a representative from the Thai Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.

Source: AFP A clip of this deliberately put a pair of shoes with a nose pointing straight at the King's image. This can be considered a great humiliation of Thai culture, which considers the foot to be extremely dirty and insulting. Even the video author took the Thai anthem as the background music.

" We want to express our deepest respect to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, " Google wrote in a letter to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications. " We also respect Thai laws and traditions, and hopefully we will achieve a solution that satisfies both in this debate ."

Before the letter was sent, the Thai government planned to sue Google in court, accusing it of insulting the monarchy - a crime where the heaviest penalty was up to 15 years in prison.

Last March, a Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Chiang Mail after painting the King's poster while drunk.

Trong Cam