There is a new development in the conflict between YouTube and the Thai dictatorship:

According to The Guardian:

The Thai government abruptly scrapped plans to sue Google after the U.S. company agreed to remove from a Web site video clips deemed insulting to the country’s revered king, an official said Friday.

The government blocked access to YouTube – a popular video-sharing site owned by Google – on April 4, after Google Inc. turned down Thailand’s request to remove the clips seen as offensive to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

“We decided not to sue Google because it has agreed to cooperate in removing 12 video clips from the YouTube Web site,” said Vissanu Meeyoo, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology spokesman.

Following this development, there are many new questions: When will YouTube be available again in Thailand? Will YouTube now block any future content that is deemed illegal in Thailand? Will there be a global ban on content deemed to breach the Thai lèse majesté provisions? Will the provocateurs who uploaded the offending YouTube videos now just find other outlets for their work? Will they be banned too?

Some of the videos that have been deemed offensive are certainly still available on YouTube at the moment, and the best reports are uncertain about what will happen next. I guess some of the remaining videos will be taken down over the coming days. It will be interesting to see how this process is managed.