BANGKOK, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Thailand has lifted its ban on the popular video-sharing site YouTube, after filters were installed to stop viewers here from seeing clips deemed offensive to the king, a minister said Friday.
The ban was imposed five months ago, after an anonymous user posted a clip showing digitally-altered images of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej next to a photograph of feet.
Thais believe feet are the lowest and dirtiest part of the body, and avoid ever showing the soles of their feet in public. Placing feet next to anyone's head is seen as a tremendous insult.
The number of clips lampooning the 79-year-old king mushroomed after news spread around the world that Thailand had banned the popular site, sparking an international debate over free speech on the Internet.
Sitthichai Pookaiyaudoom, the minister for information and communication technology, said the ban had been lifted Thursday after YouTube installed the filters to prevent Thai viewers seeing the clips of the king.
"It was lifted after YouTube managed to find filter technology to screen out clips we do not want," Sitthichai told AFP.
"In fact we told YouTube many months ago what we wanted, but they were only just now able to do that," he said.
Thailand had announced in May that it had reached an agreement with YouTube to remove the clips seen as insulting to the king.
The Nation newspaper reported Friday that YouTube, owned by Internet giant Google, had decided not to remove the clips entirely in order to respect the free speech rights of its users.
But the paper said the company had agreed to filter the offensive clips in Thailand by preventing Thai Internet service providers from accessing them.
The US-based company was not reachable for comment.
Thailand's king, almost universally adored by Thais, is the world's longest-reigning monarch and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult against the royal family.
At one point in the fued with YouTube, Thailand's army-backed government, which came to power after a September coup, had threatened to charge the company with lese majeste -- the crime of offending a monarch.
In late March, a Thai court jailed a Swiss man for 10 years for insulting the monarch by vandalising his portraits.
The king later pardoned the man, who was then deported from Thailand.
