Youtube Banned in China | Youtube Blocked in China

Youtube Banned in China | Youtube Blocked in China

IndiaTimes Reports
YouTube confirmed its website was being blocked in China, although the California firm offered no explanation for why Chinese
authorities were barring access to the popular video-sharing service.

"YouTube has been blocked in China since yesterday," company spokesman Scott Rubin said.

"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."

Chinese authorities have a history of blocking websites they deem politically unacceptable or offensive.

A spokesman for the Chinese consulate in San Francisco told AFP he didn't have any information about YouTube being blocked in China.

The YouTube blockage came as government officials there publicly challenged the authenticity of a video that purports to show police beating to death a pro-Tibet demonstrator last year.

China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unidentified government source saying supporters of the Dalai Lama were "fabricating lies" by doctoring video to "deceive the international community."

In March of last year YouTube access was barred temporarily in China after video clips appeared showing violent unrest in the Tibetan capital Lhasa that triggered a virtual lockdown of the city by security forces.

Footage of Chinese troops apparently beating Tibetans last year in and near Lhasa following the deadly riots has appeared on YouTube in recent days. The source, date and location of the footage, posted by a Tibetan exile group, could not be independently confirmed.

The video shows hundreds of uniformed Chinese soldiers running through a Tibetan monastery, some of them beating a man with batons.

In another scene, uniformed soldiers kick, drag and beat several men and women who are lying on the ground, some of them with their hands bound behind their backs...read more

NBC Chicago Reports

The Chinese government has banned its citizens from viewing videos on YouTube, the video sharing site's owner Google said Tuesday.

Google trackers noticed late Monday that Chinese traffic of YouTube had decreased dramatically and watched as it dropped to nearly zero Tuesday morning, the New York Times reported.

“We don’t know the reason for the block,” YouTube spokesman Scott Rubin told the Times. “Our government relations people are trying to resolve it."

Chinese officials have been selectively blocking YouTube videos for months in an attempt to weed out dissent. It routinely monitors all Internet content visited by Chinese residents and can limit access at its discretion.

But the Chinese recently have begun to fight back against the censorship, finding loopholes to get around the eyes of their Big Brother government...read more

CNN Reports

China has blocked the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube but did not offer a reason for the ban.

Google, which owns YouTube, said it began noticing a decline in traffic from China about noon Monday.

By early Wednesday, site users insider China continued to encounter an error message: "Network Timeout. The server at youtube.com is taking too long to respond."

"We do not know the reason for the blockage and we are working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users," said Scott Rubin, a spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube.

It's not the first time users in China have been unable to access the site. In March 2008, China blocked YouTube during riots in Tibet. Video Watch more about the decision »

At the time, protesters burned vehicles and shops, some advocating independence from China, and others demonstrating against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in the area...read more