Riot police stand in front of a portrait of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej in Bangkok. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA
You could call it 'repression lite'. You can't censor the whole internet - unless you commit China-sized resources to this - so why not target YouTube?
Thailand has become the latest nation to respond to a perceived slight to its national honour with a blanket ban on the video sharing website, after YouTube refused to remove a clip ridiculing the country's revered king.
The 44 second clip is amateurish, distinctly juvenile and seems expressly intended to inflame the feelings of Thai people.
It shows a picture of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which is then defaced with some crudely drawn animated additions and - most seriously - placed directly underneath a photo of a woman's feet, something gravely disrespectful to Thais.
Insulting the king is a serious offence in Thailand - a fact a Swiss man found out to his cost last week when he was jailed for 10 years.
After YouTube said it would not take down the clip, Thailand's military appointed government, installed after Thaksin Shinawatra's administration was ousted in a coup in September, responded by blocking local access to the entire site.
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