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YouTube, the fourth most visited website in the world (according to Alexa Internet), has been censored several times in some countries since its inception. These countries include the United States, Brazil, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Map showing YouTube blocking status. Countries that still block YouTube are shown in red, Purple are restricted access countries, Green countries have YouTube versions, and pink, formerly blocked YouTube.

[edit] Worldwide

[edit] Windows Live Messenger

On May 10 2008, Microsoft temporarily banned functional YouTube links from its Live Messenger Service. Microsoft has yet to comment on the blocking. The sending of any functional link starting with either http:// or www. with the string "youtube.com" contained within it will return an error message saying "The following message could not be delivered to all recipients: (original message here)." Coincidentally, or not, Messenger TV, a new video service provided by Microsoft is to be released the same week.^[1]

On 10 May 2008 at around 21:30 British Summer Time it appears that YouTube links can now be sent again.

[edit] By educational institutions

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Brigham Young University

Some U.S. Colleges are also blocking YouTube access. Brigham Young University, a private university run by the LDS (Mormon) Church had blocked YouTube access in the past, but this policy was changed in June 2009.^[2]

[edit] Southern California Institute of Architecture

The graduate and undergraduate student bodies of the Southern California Institute of Architecture are denied access to YouTube and other common video sites such as Google Video, without regard for their educational content. The administration cites bandwidth concerns to legitimize this prohibition.

[edit] K-12 Schools

Many K-12 schools in the United States, Canada & The Democratic Republic of Silverio World block access to YouTube due to sexual, violent, and unusual content, and due to bandwidth consumption.

[edit] In The UK

YouTube and other video streaming websites are also blocked from access in schools across the UK to 'avoid distraction from work'. This only applies to students, as teachers are allowed access to YouTube to show videos which are educational. This is done through the use of proxy censor systems through the council's Internet provision, which most schools receive through.

[edit] By businesses

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Hospital Corporation of America

Hospital Corporation of America blocks access to YouTube on its computers. This may be due to bandwidth consumption.

[edit] By country

[edit] United states

Following the September 11 attacks, and the 911 Truth movement, several successful attempts have been made to censor, block and remove the audio from clips and movies depicting the 911 conspiracy.^{[citation needed]} Chief among these is the Zeitgeist film, that although it was freely distributed by its author and spawned an Internet phenomenon of dozens of re-cuts and re-edits, all also freely licensed, was repeatedly removed from YouTube, claiming its content "inappropriate".^{[citation needed]}

On many occasions these videos' sound tracks were only removed after the video had reached a massive audience of more than a million viewers[1], inciting the public to create even more videos of the same content, and even an "anti-YouTube" phenomenon.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Armenia

Following the disputed February 2008 presidential elections, the Armenian Government temporarily blocked internet users from YouTube. The Armenian opposition had used the website to publicize video of police and military brutality carried out against anti-government protesters.

[edit] Brazil

YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) on the grounds that the site makes available video footage made by a paparazzo in which she and her boyfriend are having sex on a Spanish beach. The lawsuit requires that YouTube be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from accessing the website.^[3][4]

The effectiveness of the measure has been questioned, since the video is available not only on YouTube, but also on other sites as part of an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned their previous decision, ordering the filters removed, although the footage itself remained forbidden, but without technical support for its blockage.^[5]

[edit] Bangladesh

In March 2009, YouTube was blocked in Bangladesh after a recording of a meeting between the prime minister and army officers was posted revealing anger by the military on how the government was handling a mutiny by border guards in Dhaka.The block is lifted at present.^[6]

[edit] Indonesia

On April 1, 2008, Indonesian information minister, Muhammad Nuh, wrote to YouTube asking them to remove a controversial Dutch film, Fitna, made by Dutch right-wing politician, Geert Wilders. The Indonesian government allowed two days for the removal of the video, or YouTube would be blocked in Indonesia. On April 4, 2008, Muhammad Nuh asked all Internet service providers to block the access to YouTube.^[7][8] On April 5, 2008, YouTube was blocked for testing by one ISP.^[9] Finally, on April 8, YouTube, along with MySpace, Metacafe, RapidShare, Multiply, Liveleak, and Fitna's official site, were blocked in Indonesia.^[10] YouTube's ban was lifted on April 10.^[11] There may still be some blocking in May 2008 according to local inhabitants.

[edit] Iran

On December 3, 2006, Iran blocked YouTube, along with several other sites, after declaring them "immoral". The YouTube ban came after a video was posted online that appears to show an Iranian soap opera star having sex.^[12] Only www.youtube.com is filtered; other servers such as ca.youtube.com are open. The block was later lifted and then reinstated after the 2009 presidential election.^[13]

[edit] Morocco

On May 25, 2007, the state-owned Maroc Telecom blocked all access to YouTube.^[14] There were no reasons given as to why YouTube was blocked, but speculations are that it might have something to do with some posted pro-separatist group Polisario clips (Polisario being the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos criticizing King Mohammed VI. The government ban did not concern the other two private internet providers, Wana and Méditel. YouTube became accessible again on May 30, 2007, after Maroc Telecom unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was a mere "technical glitch".^[15]

[edit] Pakistan

YouTube was blocked in Pakistan following a decision taken by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on February 22, 2007 because of the number of "non-Islamic objectionable videos."^[16] One report specifically names Fitna, a controversial Dutch film, as the basis for the block.^[17] Pakistan, an Islamic republic, ordered its ISPs to block access to YouTube "for containing blasphemous web content/movies."^[18]Blasphemy law in Pakistan calls for life imprisonment or death. Router misconfiguration by one Pakistani ISP effectively blocked YouTube access worldwide for several hours on February 24.^[19]

This follows increasing unrest in Pakistan by Islamic extremists over the reprinting of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons which depict satirical Criticism of Islam.^[18] However, it has been suggested by some Pakistani vigilante web sites and electoral process watchdog groups that the block was imposed largely to distract viewers from videos alleging vote-rigging by the ruling MQM party in the recently concluded general elections. Allegations of suppressing vote-rigging videos by the Musharraf administration are also being leveled by Pakistani bloggers, newspapers, media, and Pakistani anti-Musharraf opposition parties.

On February 26, 2007, the ban was lifted after the website had removed the objectionable content from its servers at the request of the government.^[20]

[edit] People's Republic of China

YouTube has been blocked in the People's Republic of China beginning 15 October 2007, but has since been unblocked.^[21][22]

However, due to it carrying video of soldiers beating monks and other Tibetans, YouTube has been blocked in Mainland China since 24 March 2009, at least.^[23]

[edit] Thailand

In 2006, Thailand blocked access to YouTube for users with Thai IP addresses. Thai authorities identified 20 offensive videos and demanded that Google remove them before it would allow unblocking of all YouTube content.^[24]

During the week of March 8, 2007, YouTube was blocked in Thailand.^[25] Many bloggers believed the reason for the blocking was a posted video of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. The government did not confirm or provide reasons for the ban. YouTube became accessible again on March 10, 2007.

On the night of April 3, 2007, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand.^[26] The government cited a video on the site that it called "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.^[27] However, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claimed that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites containing references to this video are blocked instead of the entire website.^[28] Communications Minister Sitthichai Pokai-udom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban."^[29] Shortly after this incident the internet technology blog Mashable was blocked from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question.^[30] YouTube was unblocked on August 30, 2007, after YouTube reportedly agreed to block videos deemed offensive by Thai authorities.^[31]

On September 21, 2007, Thai authorities announced they were seeking a court order to block videos that had recently appeared on YouTube accusing Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda of attempting to manipulate the royal succession to make himself Thailand's king.^[32]

[edit] Tunisia

YouTube has been blocked in Tunisia since at least November 2, 2007, with a forged HTTP 404 error message appearing instead.^[33] The reasons for such an action are not immediately known, and no explanations have been given. YouTube is the second video site to display such messages.

[edit] Turkey

Turkish courts have banned YouTube several times and users in Turkey currently cannot access the site .

Türk Telekom first blocked YouTube in compliance with a Turkish court order on 6 March 2007. The court decision was based on videos insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in an escalation of what the Turkish media referred to as a "virtual war" of insults between Greeks and Turks on the website.^[24][34] YouTube was sued for "insulting Turkishness"^[35] and access to the site was suspended pending the removal of the video. YouTube lawyers sent proof of the video's removal to the Istanbul public prosecutor and access was restored on March 9, 2007.^[36]

In January 2008, another ban came into effect after "decision no: 2008/55 of T.R. Ankara 12th Criminal Court of Peace." ^[37]

On May 5, 2008, Türk Telekom was again forced to prevent access to the website in accordance with the Ankara 11th Sulh Criminal Court court decision (2008/468) of April 24, 2008, which cited that YouTube had not acquired a certificate of authorisation in the country. Members of the press and the general public have strongly criticized the bans.

Youtube is not banned when accessed through University IP addresses^[38]. The website is the ninth most popular website in Turkey, and everybody, including the Prime Minister, can easily circumvent the ban through proxies.^[39]

[edit] Critics on ban

Some journalist's view (Nuh Gönültaş) in Turkey says: "Youtube closed for AKP closing case.It is not as easy as to close youtube." ^[40] Journalist Nuh Gönültaş said: "The ban is a democracy - military problem. Turkish media blinde eye for ban" ^[41]

[edit] United Arab Emirates

The UAE's telecom regulatory authority blocked YouTube, with the Etisalat ISP in the UAE citing "presence of adult content on the website which is clearly against the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the UAE".^[42] However, as of January 2009, YouTube is unblocked and users can open YouTube.

[edit] See also

• Internet censorship

[edit] References