You Tube to be (partially?) blocked again

[Sen Yai]

BANGKOK (AFP) тАФ Thailand, which just ended a five-month ban on the video-sharing site YouTube, now wants to block clips that accuse a top royal adviser of masterminding last year's coup, an official said Saturday.

"The video clips pose a threat to our national security," said Yanaphon Youngyuen, head of the justice ministry's cyber-crime department.........


Yanaphon said the government would only block the two video clips, not the entire site.

Full story here

Do they have the technology to block only two clips instead of the whole site? If so, why was this not done before?

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[Hmmm]

The clips in question below. But beware, they're tedious. They are however quite professionally produced.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B_i5CljFpP8
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wRcj9WDo_lU

They put forward the assertion that Prem masterminded the coup WITHOUT HMK's involvement.

The strong criticism of Prem, and the particularly strong defence of the Prince (more so than HMK), suggest that Thaksin's fingerprints are all over this little effort.

[TrongpaiExpat]

It's not banned yet, I just watched it. They could have used some help with the English sub titles.

Anybody who thinks the King had nothing to do with the coup is really naive lol

[TrongpaiExpat]

Anybody who thinks the King had nothing to do with the coup is really naive lol

or has has not read The King Never Smiles

[Hmmm]

The conspiracy theory here would be that whoever made these clips is very aware of HMKs likely role in the coup, but highlighting that would not suit their purpose. Indeed it would only attract criticism from all Thais who revere HMK.

A common theory is that the coup was engineered to restore Prem and the Privy Council's role in the decision regarding succession following the passing of the ailing HMK. Thaksin had courted the Prince's favour for years and was poised to exert much more influence on a Prince-led Palace than the Privy Council or HMK could allow.

So the clip attempts to highlight Prem's instigation of the coup, especially since the government has now lost favour. And by not mentioning HMK's likely role, they can present Prem's actions as defamatory towards HMK. Ironic ? Probably.

If Thaksin is planning a return to Thai politics, he needs to undermine Prem and the Privy Council's influence, and re-establish his own influence with the Prince. He already has a proxy TRT party in place. Since these clips do undermine Prem and offer unusually strong support towards the unpopular Prince, they're consistent with a Thaksin-led strategy. At least that's the theory.

The fact that the government wants to ban the clips, even though they actually support rather than defame HMK, does add weight to the theory.