China completely banned YouTube
Posted on 25.03.2009 at 15:07 in Tech News by Martin
China appears to be blocking all access to YouTube. Now, why in the world would it do something like that? I’ve got some theories. First, though, the facts: YouTube use from China started dropping off the map sometime Monday night, with traffic nearly reaching a standstill by Tuesday morning. Google (which owns YouTube) has confirmed the apparent ban, though its staff is not certain of the cause. “We do not know the reason for the blockage, and we’re working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users in China,” a spokesperson says. Google does believe the Chinese government knowingly cut the access. The spokesperson, however, questions why officials wouldn’t have just blocked a specific video, as they’ve done before, rather than nixing the entire site.
YouTube has been banned by other countries as well for allowing users to upload and share videos which foreign governments in Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan and Turkey found embarrassing to their political regimes. Google is working to restore access to the site for Chinese citizens. This is not the first instance in which Chinese users have been unable to access the video sharing site. China blocked YouTube during the Tibet riots in March 2008. During that time protesters were burning shops and vehicles in an attempt to protest the Han Chinese influence. The riots left 19 dead.
Posted on 25.03.2009 at 15:07 in Tech News by Martin
China appears to be blocking all access to YouTube. Now, why in the world would it do something like that? I’ve got some theories. First, though, the facts: YouTube use from China started dropping off the map sometime Monday night, with traffic nearly reaching a standstill by Tuesday morning. Google (which owns YouTube) has confirmed the apparent ban, though its staff is not certain of the cause. “We do not know the reason for the blockage, and we’re working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users in China,” a spokesperson says. Google does believe the Chinese government knowingly cut the access. The spokesperson, however, questions why officials wouldn’t have just blocked a specific video, as they’ve done before, rather than nixing the entire site.
YouTube has been banned by other countries as well for allowing users to upload and share videos which foreign governments in Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan and Turkey found embarrassing to their political regimes. Google is working to restore access to the site for Chinese citizens. This is not the first instance in which Chinese users have been unable to access the video sharing site. China blocked YouTube during the Tibet riots in March 2008. During that time protesters were burning shops and vehicles in an attempt to protest the Han Chinese influence. The riots left 19 dead.
Source: PC World
