March 23, 2008
Read all about it: BBC News & YouTube unblocked
An Associated Press video on the Taiwanese Presidential elections
Just in time for Easter, YouTube has come back from the dead after an absence of around a week. As we reported last week, the block was most likely due to certain sensitive content, a move that has left some people questioning whether Google/YouTube were involved at all. Unfortunately, its resurrection doesn't appear to be fully complete — some video clips don't seem to load properly and a search for fairly innocuous words (we tried "cheese" just to test it) can result in the connection being reset. It's fair to say that it's being temperamental.
Interestingly, somewhere that does seem fully accessible is the BBC News website. This is particularly noteworthy given that it was blocked long before other websites started going down nearly a fortnight ago. Indeed, Shanghaiist can't actually remember the last time we were able to access the Beeb's news pages on a normal server in China. Perhaps it’s so that we can all read about (and watch videos of) yesterday's Taiwanese presidential elections in which pro-China candidate Ma Ying-jeou swept to victory? Or maybe it's so that we can see the 'truth' about recent events to the West, as seen in the video Danwei have found.
Regardless of the reasons behind these sites' new-found accessibility, Shanghaiist suggests you make the most of it while you can — who knows how long it will last…
If you've found some other newly unblocked websites be sure to let us know via the Contribute page or by posting a comment.
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olympic visitors will want to access the same websites as they do at home, and china does not want to show them the ugly face of communist censorship.
shanghaiist has been unblocked, too.
a predicable, cynical joke, an olympic gimmick.
during september all will be back to abnormal. the censors will be given free practise.
We were blocked?
perfect! BBC is my favourite. because it has high moral standard.
When was Shanghaiist blocked?
Could the return of youtube have anything to do with the petition that some Chinese intellectuals have submitted to the Chinese Government?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/world/asia/24china.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
This story tells all about what they said and who said what.
opspraak: NYtimes has not been blocked in China for a very long time. pls say what you want to say, donot mislead.
What? Whose misleading who? I'm simply asking if the story that is in NY Times, i.e. - prominent Chinese intellectuals condemn crackdown, might have anything to do with the fact that youtube has again been unblocked. I don't find that misleading at all, but if you like I can draw you some pictures?
Now it has become clear, why YouTube has been unblocked. The Chinese propaganda department posted a video there about why Tibet has always been a part of China and wants Chinese netizens to see it.
Hitler argued the same way about parts of Eastern Europe and still got to hold the Berlin Olympics. Provenly, appeasement policy did not work, then, why should it work now?
Sure the video of Chinese border guards training their guns on Tibetan children will still be inaccessible from China.
A cynical joke to unblock YouTube for communist propaganda purpose.
Shanghaiist was unaccessible in beijing from at least from August 2007 until last week.
The Chinese propaganda department posted a video there about why Tibet has always been a part of China and wants Chinese netizens to see it.
wouldn't they be better served by posting it on youku? or 56.com? or tudou? While being cynical about the Net Nanny is ALWAYS the default option, this strikes me as overly paranoid. I suspect, but am only guessing that it has more to do with the fact that the actions in Lhasa are now over (for now) and fewer and fewer people will be hopping online to try to watch video of last week's news.
Anyways, I don't think the CHinese propaganda department needs to convince CHINESE citizens about the legitimacy of their occupation/invasion of Tibet. The number of Chinese people that I've met who are convinced in the Tibetian right of self-determination is roughly equal to the number of Shrute Bucks I can spend at my local Element Fresh. (i.e. zero)
Shanghaiist was unaccessible in beijing from at least from August 2007 until last week.
patently untrue. I logged onto Shanghaiist plenty of times from Beijing between then and now, and not through VPN or work computers either.
overseas chinese in UK, Canada cant see "sensative" topics in Chinese websites, they are censored off by UK, Canada goverment.
its only fair enough that the chinese goverment block certain western websites! eyes for eyes!
overseas chinese in UK, Canada cant see "sensative" topics in Chinese websites, they are censored off by UK, Canada goverment.
its only fair enough that the chinese goverment block certain western websites! eyes for eyes!
Um, no. Overseas Chinese can easily see sensitive topics on Chinese websites, but thanks for trying.
truth:1
concor1: 0
redtube.com is still blocked.
"Now it has become clear, why YouTube has been unblocked. The Chinese propaganda department posted a video there about why Tibet has always been a part of China and wants Chinese netizens to see it."
At this moment, that particular video is still blocked inside PRC. This does not support your theory.
I think the strong filter is still on and the youtube unblocking has nothing to do with that video. (the fact is probably youtube was temporary blocked as the government worried there might be some video unfavorable to them. and unblocked once the situation 'stabilized')
-- the keyword strong filter (that T word) is still on in the generic sense.
They may have unblocked a lot of sights, but my internet connection still seems to be pretty cracked out. Over the last few days, I've been regularly losing access to overseas sights and then it clicks back on a few minutes later. On off on off. Is this happening to anyone else?
T: from what area in beijing do you lock on? five star hotels and foreigner/embassy deluxe compounds have access, others don't.