Global Voices Online

China: Youtube Blocked

Thursday, October 18th, 2007 @ 08:28 UTC

by Oiwan Lam

Countries:: China
Topics:: Freedom of Speech
Languages:: Chinese

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mg:: Shina : Youtube voasakana...

Several sources seem to confirm that youtube has been blocked in China. Ken Wong noticed that the blocking happened soon (one day) after youtube launched its traditional Chinese version (zh).

Transpacifica has also confirmed the blocking of youtube.

Posted by Oiwan Lam

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15 Responses to
“China: Youtube Blocked”

October 19th, 2007 at 9:37 am
monkeynuts:
1
Yes, i can confirm that it is blocked in most parts of china since i am in china. Furthermore most websites are being redirected to Baidu.com (a chinese search engine)….

This could be because of the present government meeting being held in china, the dalai lama being presented with a medal by the US and other factors as well…
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:56 am
China hater =):
2
I can’t believe that Youtube is blocked.
Wikipedia is blocked too, it was probably blocked long ago but I just had internet in Shanghai and it sucks SO bad.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:07 am
Ashley Brown:
3
I’m in China and yes youtube is blocked. I’m absolutely infuriated at this, because I have a background in the music industry and youtube was the only way I could keep up to date with current videos. I can’t possibly express how angry I am at how pathetically condescending and insulting this is. I’ll be leaving China at the earliest possible opportunity.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:15 am
bimbamboogie:
4
yeah,

It’s out in BeiJing

Lame.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Denied! « Chinese Dissonance:
5
[...] the past week until today. Strange things have been happening online lately. Youtube has been completely blocked. Blogspot sites are suddenly accessible without a proxy. Come June or July at the latest (when [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 17:13 pm
amasiam:
6
It,s blocked in Zhangzhou (Fujian province) China
October 23rd, 2007 at 15:59 pm
inchina:
7
youtube is blocked, pornsites still work though…
October 23rd, 2007 at 19:32 pm
mahathir_fan:
8
This is so sad.

I use youtube a lot to provide evidence to support my points.

For example, I use youtube to prove that nobody died on Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989.

See minute 5:50:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=igsW5yQ6428

Also, I have recently used youtube to prove that Jesus Christ is nothing but a Sun God. It is a fake religion.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NgJIt_sxWcw

A lot of Chinese may not understand the second clip. I recommend downloading the English subtitle file and using a tool like babelfish to translate it to Chinese.

Please China, remove censorship of youtube so that Chinese society can move into the age of scientific era and throw away our superstituous beliefs.

Mao was right about religion and its time the truth gets out. Unblock youtube! We do not have to be afraid of the truth because we are the Truth!
October 23rd, 2007 at 23:07 pm
John:
9
The reason for the blocking is in this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2197690,00.html
October 24th, 2007 at 6:58 am
whison:
10
No wonder i cannot get youtube~
What a disgusting thing to block it
October 24th, 2007 at 16:52 pm
mahathir_fan:
11
John,

The most important thing to Tibet right now is not Youtube but a scientific education.

As you all know, I am a supporter of free speech and anti-censorship. In general, I am against this censorship.

However, Tibetans are simply too backward and superstitious. They believe in things like reincarnation. Some even do this religious prayer where they walk few steps, kneel down and pray, walk few steps and kneel down and pray.

I would say that the most important thing for Tibet right now is not Youtube.

Rather, it is education, scientific education to educate Tibetans so that they can get a proper education and be able to think critically.

Until they are exposed to the ideas of democracy and not that the Dalai Lama is to be one of innumerable incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, i would not consider youtube unblocking to be a priority.

Tibetans right now need proper scientific education and until they move into this age of enlightenment, until they demand to see scientific evidence of reincarnation,
freedom of information access is of no use. They will simply be brainwashed by this information.

To free them from brainwash, either by the government or by enemies of the government, we need to first provide them with proper education to free their minds from this religious bondage. Unblocking youtube will not help. Teaching them math and science would.

The current Dalai Lama if he is a good leader ought to be promoting the education of science to his people and free his people minds from religious bondage and move his people into the scientific era instead of being stuck into a 2000 year old belief with no scientific basis.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:32 am
China Proxy:
12
To get around China’s blocking of websites, use either Tor or download the Gladder extension for firefox. A google search on either Tor or Gladder will get you what you want.

I’ve lived in China for years, and there is no website I can’t visit.
October 29th, 2007 at 15:31 pm
yang:
13
maybe no one knows the exact reason why sites are blocked, and the only thing i can do is wishing…
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 am
Howard:
14
Remember, China tightly censors its own citizens’ knowledges about the outside world. It’s NOT a free country!
China’s search engines already censor out any search results on Tianmen Square, Free Tibet, Falun Gong and Taiwan Indpendence.
Youtube is just the latest vicitim by China’s censorship program. Communism does nobody good!!!
April 4th, 2008 at 23:02 pm
Christian:
15
Hey, has China blocked another service? I found a solution for you! It’s http://strongvpn.com VPN!!! The fastest and the most reliable service in internet!!! Has never been disappointed with it quality!