Just doing a follow up on my previous entry on no blogging love in Shenzhen (China), I got this article from our beloved Rambling Librarian, Ivan Chew, noting that China has blocked YouTube amid the on going protest/violence in Tibet. Yeap, another censorship act going on with much resemblance to Myanmar’s case some months ago.
China Blocks YouTube After Videos of Tibet Protests Are Posted – Taken from The Associated Press via New York Times
BEIJING (AP) — Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular American video Web site.
The blocking added to the Communist government’s efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.
Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.
There were no protest scenes posted on China-based video Web sites like as 56.com, youku.com and tudou.com.
The Chinese government has not commented on its move to prevent access to YouTube. Internet users trying to call up the Web site were presented with a blank screen.
Chinese leaders encourage Internet use for education and business but use online filters to block access to material considered subversive or pornographic.
Foreign Web sites run by news organizations and human rights groups are regularly blocked if they carry disapproved information. Operators of China-based online bulletin boards are required to monitor their content and enforce censorship.
China has at least 210 million Internet users, according to the government, and is expected to overtake the United States soon to have the biggest population of Web users.
Beijing tightened controls on online video with rules that took effect Jan. 30 and limited video-sharing to state-owned companies.
Regulators backtracked a week later, apparently worried they might disrupt a growing industry, and said private companies that were already operating legally could continue. They said any new competitors would be bound by the more stringent restrictions.
I am no censorship expert but a quick check at the ‘ol Wikipedia showed that China is already in the list of Pervasive Censorship. According to them, it means that “such nations often censor political content and may retaliate against citizens who violate the censorship with measures such as imprisonment.” Singapore on the other hand practices Nominal Censorship.
Don’t know about you but I am sure glad we here in Singapore have the freedom to surf around the ‘ol WWW to check out stuffs. That is perhaps one of the few things I appreciate in this country. As for the rest, well…similar to the other local sentiments…I am rather pissed. But that is another story 
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Hahaha…even S army din even block you tube!
KP: That is probably why we are the erm..nominal ones..keke..
“Beloved”? Sure or not? LOL
On a serious note, I try to reserve judgment on how China acts against Internet content. Not that I necessarily condone it but China is so huge and I don’t think I can truly appreciate the scale of issues and impact. So I tend to take a more intellectual view of how they implement certain policies.
Ivan: Aiya..there is much love man…brudderly of course..keke..
But personally, banning is a no-no..it shows the government are hiding and not being transparent. But then again, they run the country a little different compared to us. So erm yeah…but we’ll see how it goes man…
Check out http://www.proxylord.com to access blocked web sites. It is very fast and secure.. Works on Youtube also!