China Blocks YouTube (Again)

Popular Video Sharing Site Is Being Censored By The Government, WSJ Reports

(CNET)  The Chinese government has apparently moved to block YouTube once again.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the government began blocking the site slowly over the past 24 hours. Quoting a Google spokesman, the Journal reported that the company has not been given a reason for the ban.

A Chinese official was asked about the ban during a press conference on Tuesday and said the "Chinese government has taken up management of the network according to the laws," the Journal reported.

"YouTube has been blocked in China," Google said in a statement. "We don't know the reason for the blockage, and we're working to restore access to our users in China."

By now, YouTube and parent company Google should be expert at handling international crises. Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and Thailand are among the countries that have cut off access to the Web's largest video site. Most of the countries have eventually brought it back.

A year ago, China blocked YouTube in an apparent attempt to prevent the outside world from anti-government protesters clashing with police inside Tibet. China eventually unblocked YouTube.

[sharednotion]

The Chinese government may be fighting a losing battle. Individuals in China with hacker-level skills may find ways to access content available to Internet users outside of China, and than these individuals may then write up descriptions of that information into e-mails that they may then pass along to others in China. 21st century communications realities are helping more & more people, in more & more countries, to access kinds of free expression that in the past they might have never been able to access.

[yurang]

Be prepared, as a student,to learn from the instructors(US and others).
btw,any chinese here?or else,why are not the replies that "offensive".
i've seen some of its videos ,honestly speaking,some snatches really hurt .
as a common chinese,i can say,the chinese people don't care about wheather the stupid government were "insulted" (or something like that)or not,however,you shouldn't pick up state sovereignty .
i 've no idea where you guys got the conclusion that we are all brainwashed,actually, if you open some of our domestic forums,you'll find sneers and insults are full of web pages.(some topics go too far away are blocked,dear bro,please don't say we know nothing,we even know the line, ----a few times cancelling ID tell me how to manage my "mouth"),make sure the webs you open are not government websites .
we believe that the government and its people are natural antithetical,complaint about gov in reality come to the virtual worlds.Resentful against authority,but we just can't find a more way out.<the history ,the populous farmers tell it>
get offline,watch the politicians well dressed on TV. nothing gonna happen. no better ,no worse.

[brianbwb-2009]

China has a responsibility to ensure that its two billion people don't erupt into the planet's largest civil war, and it is well known that outside agitators try to use Chinese citizens as tools to destabilize the mega country, and we must remember that there are many subdivisions within the population, that could easily shed lakes of blood in countries all over the world, given sufficient instigation.

YouTube is a minor concern compared to the social stability of two billion people, if YouTube poses a concern, it is totally within China's right to do whatever it wants to eliminate potential problems, and the concern of the whole world that it succeeds.

[vm7488-2009]

Freakin commies...
Posted by tx_doughboy at 4:27 PM : Mar 24, 2009
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So what, hippy? I think China made a good move because all the stupid things in the world that was captured on video is on YouTube. I think that YouTube-Google should enforce a policy of prohibiting unintelligent or moronic contents and maybe China will consider opening it's ports on the website. Or, maybe YouTube should put a category or regional selection option so that anything on that category (e.g. stupid stuff, entertainment, video blog) will not be shown on certain regions indicated.

[tx_doughboy]

Freakin commies...