"We manage the Internet according to law ... to prevent the spread of harmful information." -China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang
China has just blocked this popular video sharing site and did not offer a reason to justify 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."
-CNN Article
but this isn't the first time this nation has blocked youtube, with the other time being last year (march '08) during riots in chinese-controlled Tibet.
Many in the country speculated the latest ban may be an attempt to filter access to footage that a Tibetan exile group released. The videos show Tibetans being kicked and beaten, allegedly by Chinese police officers after the riots.
China, with 298 million Internet users, has routinely blocked access to Web sites it considers politically unacceptable, including the Voice of America and The New York Times. The Chinese government has also censored television broadcasts, including those by the BBC and CNN, during coverage of issues such as its policy in Tibet and Taiwan.
-CNN Article
Personally, I think this censorship of information from so many people is abhorable.
In my opinion, if the chinese government was proud of what it was doing, than they wouldn't need these censors. I think they are only worsening their own image on a global scale in a futile attempt to hide information internally.
7 comments:
I agree. This action is simply despicable. Their censorship of youtube is a violation of rights, in my opinion. I don't think their justification justifies thier actions...to say they're "preventing the spread of harmful information"...it is not even harmful. It is only the truth about the government and their brutality towards others. It is bascially the government hiding information of the evil they're doing. First of all, the officers beating Tibetans is wrong to begin with and to restrict the people from knowing the truth is even worse. I think the people of China have the right to know the truth about government actions.
I agree with Sam - China shouldn't censor images on the internet... but then again, hasn't the US censored stuff it didn't want the general public to see? Vietnam is a great example of this...the government didn't want to show the public that they were fighting a losing battle, so they didn't allow a lot of footage/pictures to reach the TV and newspapers. I know that what China is doing is not exactly fair or righteous, but I don't think the US is in the position to judge...we did the same thing in the past.
This is obviously a violation of freedom of speech and of the press. Obviously, the Chinese government doesn't want its people to see its horrfic actions against the people of Tibet. I strongly believe that the United Nations should put more effort into resolving this conflict between Tibet and China.
ya i totally agree with this article. maybe if the chinese werent so communist and werent exhibiting this behavior such as kicking and beating, people would not have any footage to put on you tube. I think the chinese are just hiding their flaws and are denouncing the fact that youtube is probably one of the reasons why they are being exposed. I dont know but the chinese are not being very reasonable and are creating a party foul for the rest of the people who want to use and watch you tube.
I agree with everything that has been said so far. In response, I understand what Anastasia is saying. We have done it in the past, and it was a violation of rights. However, that was in the past. You don't see as much censoring going on today because a lot of stuff that gets hidden is eventually leaked out. I just feel as though China is essentially restricting the rights of their people, not necessarily for the sake of national security, but just because the government is afraid that Chinese citizens are going to recognize a lot of the human rights violations that are occuring and may begin to rally against their government. And of course, China doesn't want a mob of angry, disgusted citizens attempting to overthrow the communist government. If they truly believed that what they were doing was justified, then they shouldn't be afraid to let their own citizens see what is going on. They are clearly ashamed and realize that their actions are not exactly uncontroversial.
As Americans we see life,liberty, freedom, and other basic rights as the defining aspects of our country. Since we see these as our basic rights, it is absolutely apalling that other countries are not guaranteed the same. Over the years, China has experienced restrictions on the books they read, television broadcasts, and now censoring on their internet use. This is unfair to the citizens of China who are not given the ability to see their communist government in all its entirety.
Lauren C. Strojny- China censoring videos through youtube is in the US terms a violation of rights, but China is not the US they have different laws. I dont agree with this but international involvement may not fix much with which images are released to the public. United Nations should be focusing more on the problem at hand and the poor behavior China is having on Tibet, as John was saying.
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