YouTube working to restore access to its users in China; site blocked since Monday
yesterday stepped up criticism of the Chinese government's decision to block access to the YouTube video-sharing site to users in the country, at least the second time it has done so in a year.
Access to YouTube has been blocked in China since Monday, according to Scott Rubin, a spokesman for YouTube Inc. "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," he said in an e-mail to Computerworld.
The site was blocked gradually starting Monday afternoon, and all users in China had lost access to YouTube at some point on Tuesday, he added. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal quoted a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry as saying the government had "taken up management of the [YouTube] network according to the laws."
Brock N. Meeks, director of communications at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a blog post yesterday that China has provided no reason for the blockage to YouTube, its parent company Google Inc. or to users in China. "Instead, Chinese officials are engaged in their own fanciful brand of obfuscation," he said.
"While Beijing may be operating with blinders on, the rest of the world is watching this game of geopolitical charades in crystal-clear, high-def," wrote Meeks. "The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is fast approaching, and the Chinese aren't taking any chances that subversive digital propaganda will trickle into their country on the bit stream."
This week's action isn't the first time that individual countries, including China, have blocked access to YouTube.
A year ago this month, for instance, the Chinese government blocked some Internet access amid rioting in Tibet. During that time, China blocked access to Google News and YouTube in what appeared to be an effort to stop the spread of video footage related to the rioting in several cities in Tibet, including the capital, Lhasa.
"There is a long history of China violating the international right of free expression," said Meeks. "On Monday, they flipped some switches, monitored some blinking LEDs on a console and choked off YouTube's air supply."
Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group, said that Chinese officials should be aware that although they can shut off access, information can still trickle through.
"There are millions of routes into and out of any country that has a decently developed tech infrastructure, and China definitely is in this category," he said. "China will soon discover, if they haven't resigned themselves to it already, that they can't have it both ways with the Internet. They can't use it as a tool to make their society and businesses more productive, and then expect that they can wall themselves off from anything they don't like. It isn't a faucet. It's a huge water pipe with only a semifunctional valve. It can't be turned off all the way anymore."
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