Mark Godfrey posted on October 19, 2007 03:18
A reminder that China can be an unsophisticated place when it comes to freedom of speech, Internet users here as of yesterday can't log on to Youtube. The popular website joins others like Wikipedia on the lengthening list of sites which have fallen foul of the Great Firewall. The crack-down is perhaps because all this week the leadership of the country's one and only political party, the Communist Party, is meeting for its 17th Congress. Embarassing videos alluding to the Party's dodgy record on corruption and human rights would not be acceptable during the grand pow-wow, held about once a decade to divvy up leadership posts. The army of censors who patrol Chinese cyberspace may also have been ordered into action as a form of revenge towards the USA for awarding the Dalai Lama the Congressional Medal earlier this week. Such blunt logic would not be beyond Beijing's cadres, who have reacted as if kicked in the nuts by Washington's grand reception for the exiled Tibetan leader. Whatever, the people most angered by the neanderthal approach to free speech as the young Chinese who use Youtube to learn English and watch to western and Chinese music videos. Those who benefit are the folks who came up with toudou, a Chinese copy of youtube. It hasn't been blocked.
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