Will wonders whether the current free-for-all of video uploading China is experiencing can go on forever.
What does the emergence of Chinese video-sharing sites mean for the future of YouTube in China? YouTube does monitor uploads for IPR violations and sexually explicit content (with mixed success) but it’s probably not paying much attention to things that would annoy Chinese Government censors. While the Great Firewall traps YouTube searches for obvious hot buttons like FLG, a search for Tiananmen Square (which is permitted by the Great Firewall because of tourism) yields a first page of returns dedicated almost entirely to the incidents of 1989. Friends of mine have wondered out loud if YouTube is headed for the same kind of blanket block or heavy-duty filtering that currently afflicts Blogger, Google’s international site and other information sources in the Chinese Government doghouse.
All I can say is, enjoy it while you can. You never know when the Great Cybernanny will strike, but you can be sure that if she picks up even an inkling of a threat, her retribution will be swift and harsh. She cannot be faulted for inconsistency in that regard. (In other regards she can be maddeningly inconsistent, but that’s another conversation.) Read Will’s piece – he’s doing a great job for CNET.
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By chris
i have been watching alot of stuff on youtube this week. i find it works much better than i had suspected. has alot of cool stuff, but also TONS of absolute nonsense from random idiots. not enough current news i think.
July 19, 2006 @ 1:23 am | Comment
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By Aramel
*grabs what she can before the Great Firewall cracks down*
July 19, 2006 @ 4:31 am | Comment
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By Bing
I guess it means majority YouTube contents are accessible from China, right?
July 19, 2006 @ 1:39 pm | Comment
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By Bing
What about Google Video? is it accessible in China?
video.google.com
July 19, 2006 @ 1:43 pm | Comment
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By chris
google video, not one bit…useless.
July 19, 2006 @ 6:21 pm | Comment
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By Imagethief
Google’s video service is still not available here. And heaven knows why. I have to say, despite the fact that I think it’s not a particularly well done site, it annoys me far more than the censorship practiced on the China site.
“The download feature of Google video isn’t available in your country?”
Kiss. My. Ass.
YouTube all the way. While we’ve got.
July 19, 2006 @ 6:36 pm | Comment