the thai government is pushing for stricter censorship laws. the new law (which is expected to pass) would do as follows

A bill to give the information and communications technology (ICT) minister unrestricted power to shut down pornographic and anti-monarchy websites is expected to be tabled in the military appointed National Legislative Assembly (NLA) next month.

it is different from the current situation in that there is now some level of checks-and-balances in place before things can be shut down.

this country seems to have a love with saying one thing to keep face, but really letting other things happen. prostitution is technically illegal, but there are tons of multi-million dollar brothels that are run like high-end spas, porn and sex toys are illegal but you can buy them on the street. actually in bangkok it is easier to find a place where you can watch sex live on the stage (which is illegal) than it is to find a high-quality porn movie.

the thing with the censorship is that it doesn’t really do anything about the problem. youtube is still banned and that probably means that most average people can’t get it, but most average people probably didn’t want to see the images of the king that caused the uproar. people who really want to access youtube can do it through anonymous relays. of course still images from the youtube video (screen shots) have been floating around email lately.

i guess in a country where saving-face is so important, things like censorship help the government to save-face. it doesn’t do anything to stop things from being out there, they are pushed underground (but even then not too far underground) but it gets moved to somebody else’s problem.