BANGKOK - News reports in Thailand and the international press are saying that Google-owned YouTube has agreed to cooperate with Thai authorities in filtering sensitive content on its website, paving the way for the lifting of a Thai ban on the popular video-sharing website.

Bangkok's English-language daily, The Nation, and international media such as the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Times of London say Thai information officials had been assured by Google that filtering programs had been put in place to selectively keep content deemed insulting to the Thai monarchy from being accessed inside the country. As of 31 August, YouTube was indeed again accessible in Bangkok, five months after the Thai government moved to block local access to the site. Videos mocking and maligning Thailand's highly revered monarch, HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, were no longer accessible. Some news and blog reports said they had in fact already been taken down by the original poster, who also appears to have had his/her YouTube account taken down.

Sitthichai Pookaiyaudoom, Thailand's minister for information and communication technology, told Agence France Presse that the ban on the video-sharing service was lifted "after YouTube managed to find filter technology to screen out clips we do not want."
The controversial videos on the Thai king genuinely outraged the Thai people. HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej is much beloved in the Kingdom and is revered as a symbol for Thai values and aspirations.
The total ban on YouTube, however, was criticized by free expression advocates, especially proponents of the Internet as a medium for vibrant and unfettered discourse.

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) itself questions the implications of reports that Google and YouTube are in effect to colluding with the Thai government to censor a popular global platform. While the agreement may remove genuinely reprehensible material from YouTube in the immediate term, SEAPA said any such collusion between Google and the Thai government could potentially be open for abuse and wide-reaching interpretations, and thereby only exacerbate concerns over free speech over the Internet. SEAPA added that the cooperation between Google/YouTube and the Thai government could conceivably become a template sought by other governments that have had run-ins with sensitive content on the video sharing site.