Last night I posted word from a few BoingBoing readers in Thailand that YouTube was suddenly, without notice, available once again in Thailand (Link to BB post). Authorities had blocked the site for months, as we understand. Looks like it's still blocked for some? Maybe the accessibility will come in waves, or maybe the whole shebang is still off limits? I'm confused, and have asked YouTube and others to help us sort out what's going on over there.
Meade in Bangkok shares the screengrab above and says,
I'm in Bangkok, and, as of 16:24 Wednesday 25 July 2007, YouTube is still blocked. When I try to access it, it redirects to the usual "Police Aleart [sic]," as shown in attached.
Unblocking YouTube would make one of the local English-language newspapers here (Link 1, Link 2). Nothing in the news today.
Grant Peck says,
Can finally get get YouTube again tonight in Bangkok via my True DSL account.
Haven't yet tried other providers.
The discrepancy could have to do with sites being blocked at two points. The ISPs have their own blocks, based on govt "suggestions." But the govt controls (officially, anyway) the intl gateways, and makes some effort to block there.
It seems likely that the gateway block is lifted but some ISPs haven't lifted their redundant blocks yet.
Interested in censorship in Thailand? Here's the site to go to: Link.
And BB reader Myo Kyaw Htun, who first shared news from Thailand yesterday that YouTube *was* accessible, says,
I received a lot of comments from Thailand local bloggers told me that they can't still access to YouTube from their home. Actually, I watched YouTube in News Reader when I arrive at office in this morning. I gave a tip to boingboing as soon as I posted about this in my blog. On tommorow I'll post again with some snapshots If I can still watch YouTube. I'm still confused that this is a technical problem of government ISP (I think that we're directly using from Government but I'm not still sure). The reason why I give tip to editors from boingboing again is that BoingBoing is my favorite blogs and I don't want to give you wrong information because you're #1. I do apologize If I will not access YouTube on tomorrow. I hope I posted correct information.
Anonymous person in Thailand says,
As of 00:05 local time, YOuTube is still blocked in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in the Northern part of the country. Can anyone recommend a good proxy service that actually has decent upload speeds? Oh wait, forget that last part. As of July 18th, the police can kick in your door for that.
Previously on BoingBoing:
