Google faces censorship in Thailand

YouTube's video service is currently being blocked in Thailand because the site contains images of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which Thailand's government considers to be offensive.

The Google-owned company has repeatedly declined to censor the images, winning cheers from proponents of free speech. According to Youtube's Head of Communications Julie Supan "While we will not take down videos that do not violate our policies, and will not assist in implementing censorship, we have offered to educate the Thai ministry about YouTube and how it works."

This statement is a little bit hypocritical, given Google's decision to censor its site to gain access to the Chinese market. It looks like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is using Thailand, a market which would produce relatively insignificant revenue for the company, to make a statement about how strongly it feels about free speech. But with a larger market like China, Google has censored references to Taiwanese independence and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

I can see both sides of the issue. On the one hand, it's better that people in nations with tyrannical leadership have access to some information rather than no information, and if censorship is the only way Google can give them some access, then so be it.

But Google can't claim the moral high-road of "not assisting in implementing censorship" in one nation when it does just that in another.