Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

YouTube Partially Unblocked In China

Posted by samzenpus on from the sneak-preview dept.

hackingbear writes "After China unblocked certain sensitive keywords in search engine baidu.com last week, YouTube is now partially, quietly unblocked. Users inside China can, without bypassing the Great Firewall, visit the site, search for sensitive keywords, and see uncensored results and comments. The videos themselves, including those not related to politics, remain blocked, however. Given that the Chinese government likes to make major changes in gradual, experimental steps, it is unclear what this round of Internet loosening will lead to eventually. At the meantime, many netizens in the country express their welcome of the moves as a good start through microblogging."

47 comments

  1. Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, I can't reach it from my town at all. I don't get a 'connection terminated' message anymore, but it never loads.

    1. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried to play some of my favorite Beatles' tunes - pulled down by EMI request. I have purchased copies, I just like to look at the lyrics, artwork, comments,etc. ...Sucks.

    2. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Same here, city of Yantai, Shandong province.

    3. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Same here in Sanya, Hainan province.

      Probably a better title would be YouTube partially unblocked in parts of China.

      Not that I really care about it, I haven't really missed not having youtube and I've been more productive for it.

    4. Re:Not for me. by Gwala · · Score: 1

      Same here, Shanghai.

      --
      #!/bin/csh cat $0
    5. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same here, Chengdu

    6. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Posting as anon for the simple reason that I am currently in Kunshan, China. I can report that www.youtube.com alternates
      between "The connection has timed out" and "The connection has been reset". The sequence is:

      1. Upon first visit to the website the "The connection has been reset" pops up instantly.
      2. All subsequent retries become "The connection has timed out".

      IMHO I do not think that it is so much the politically sensitive things that are the problem but the good old fashion protectionism.
      Give it time and as soon as the local video website are large and thrive, then the foreign websites will most likely be partially
      accessible with many "The connection has timed out" and "The connection has been reset" to show the average Chinese user
      that the foreign websites are terrible.

      A cynical "foreign devil"

    7. Re:Not for me. by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2

      Sssshhh, we are talking about the filthy commie censorship here, not the moral and understandable capitalist one...

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    8. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Same here in Shanghai, with ChinaNet FTTH. mtr shows that the IPs are null-routed (or blocked with -j DROP):

      Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
      1. 192.168.2.1 0.0% 14 1.1 1.7 1.0 4.1 0.9
      2. x.x.x.x 0.0% 14 3.7 23.8 2.8 258.6 67.7
      3. x.x.x.x 0.0% 14 5.7 4.3 2.4 10.5 2.1
      4. x.x.x.x 0.0% 14 4.2 16.9 4.2 101.8 27.9
      5. 61.152.86.58 0.0% 14 5.7 5.8 4.7 7.7 0.8
      6. ???

      (sorry for obfuscating the IPs and posting anonymously, but it's forbidden to talk about censorship, and I don't want to get in trouble as I do all of my earnings using Internet ...)

    9. Re:Not for me. by jabbany · · Score: 1

      Seems to differ cross ISPs and only the HTTPS version works where I am (no video as well).

    10. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get a VPN, like every sane person in China

    11. Re:Not for me. by Universe22 · · Score: 1

      Wuhan, Don't make sense. It's still "The app is currently unreachable."

    12. Re:Not for me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beijing same...

    13. Re:Not for me. by hackingbear · · Score: 1

      Read the TFA

      At the mean time, internet users from Guangdong province, Fujian Province, and big city like Shanghai and Beijing are able to access YouTube by using HTTP secure method. Any type of video contents can be successfully search and comments can be read, but most of the videos are unable to play.

      So try the HTTP secure method maybe. I can't verify myself here outside of China.

  2. Slashdot in China? by Bananatree3 · · Score: 1

    wonderful news!

    1. Re:Slashdot in China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Subject line sounds like a John Adams opera...

  3. What is a baidy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *baidu.com*

  4. Ooops. by Formalin · · Score: 2

    It turns out someone at party headquarters plugged in the wrong patch cable, after all.

  5. Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I am in Beijing. YouTube is not accessible from here, using http or https. A bad prank or a slip up of the Great Firewall network engineers which has probably been patched up by now.

    1. Re:Not by sdk4777 · · Score: 2

      In Shanghai, the connection also times out.

  6. bait by shentino · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't think this is so much a loosening of restrictions as it is a honeypot operation to entice people to get caught with redder hands than before.

    1. Re:bait by unreadepitaph · · Score: 1

      I think you hit the nail on the head.
      Crushing the next generation of opposition before it starts?

      --
      My internetting is no good.
    2. Re:bait by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Yes it shows you have news from outside or are trying at random times to get the service.
      What the system expects is everybody to feel so watched they don't even think about trying.
      News like this from "outside" just makes people glow on the networks. You join a list and a count starts.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:bait by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2

      Except, from what I have gathered, a wide spectrum of light opposition exists in China. There are lines you cannot cross, but talking about corruption, talking about pollution, is tolerated for instance. I doubt that people merely looking for information would be bothered a lot. They already have a hard time preventing people from posting opinions, I doubt they are willing to spend the resources to go after the people reading them.

      There are voices in the Chinese communist party to ditch censorship totally, or to make it what it was first supposed to be : a counter-pornography filter and to remove political subjects from the filtered list.

      China is not North Korea, it is possible that this move is the real thing.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  7. Proof that the Chinesd gov't has a sense of humor by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Oh, you want to try YouTube? No problem! Here you go -- videos are all blocked, but you can read YouTube's high quality comments sections as much as you like!"

    It's beyond perverse...

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  8. Still down in ... by enickel · · Score: 1

    ... Guangdong. Time to clean the tubes

  9. Re:Proof that the Chinesd gov't has a sense of hum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I really wish i had mod points, used my last one a few articles ago... fucking hilarious

  10. Chinese government just did a power move. by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ever see any youtube video comments? Some of the stupidest things you'll ever hear are on youtube comments. Chinese citizens will think the rest of the world is populated by idiots and they'll beg for isolationism.

    --
    God spoke to me
    1. Re:Chinese government just did a power move. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Chinese citizens will think the rest of the world is populated by idiots

      For the most part, they'd be correct.

    2. Re:Chinese government just did a power move. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world is mostly populated by idiots. And this will work because China is also part of the world and thus mostly populated by idiots.

  11. Confirmed, not unblocked by LS · · Score: 2

    It is currently still blocked (posting from Beijing).

    --
    There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
    1. Re:Confirmed, not unblocked by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      It is currently still blocked (posting from Beijing).

      The censorship policy in China is pretty much a local affair. My experience is that censorship in Beijing is stricter than in Shanghai. Censorship tends to be even looser away from the big cities. So when you see these announcements about "site xyz is unblocked in China", it is usually really just a change in one locality.

    2. Re:Confirmed, not unblocked by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 1
      Yet, TFA has:

      At the mean time, internet users from Guangdong province, Fujian Province, and big city like Shanghai and Beijing are able to access YouTube by using HTTP secure method.

      Which is simply plain wrong...

    3. Re:Confirmed, not unblocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read an article somewhere, where the Chinese government wonders why people emigrate out of the country don't come back.

      They can't seem to realise that a healthy amount of bashing is required for a well balanced government. Look at UK parliament. It's a circus and soap opera at the same time (ORRRDDDEER) :)

  12. Not unblocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Still blocked here in Shanghai as of 13:30 local time. Both http and https.

    For anyone thinking to pull a Mike Daisey just remember lots of us live in China. It may be a strange and far-off place to you but to us it's home.

  13. Reality and Accepted Submissions... by bdabautcb · · Score: 1

    I will be the first to admit that I don't know dick about Chinese internet availability. I have one high school buddy who has been teaching and living in China for 4~5 years, and married a Chinese girl. As far as I can tell from his experience, told to me: the censorship issue is manifest mostly in that western entertainment media are the most contained. Social and internet access to most websites are okay, but when he came to visit I explained the concept of Justified to him. He had not seen the show, nor is he a Raylon type guy. He would appreciate it, but the show is censored in China. I am not sure if I even think that is a problem, seeing as I have never been there. A lot of slashdotters comment on places they have never been. If you have been to China, and can speak to the "great firewall" from personal experience, let me know. I and my pals would appreciate some input from english speakers (I can do german, and some very limited french and spanish, and two phrases of Japanese) Gao ming tien da hen gao. Un Gobiernio Bwag Machu Pichu.

    --
    Koalas. They're telepathic. Plus, they control the weather. -Margaret
  14. It's a show!!! by triplaA · · Score: 1

    Don't let this intentional act fool you, the Chinese communist party (CCP) often use other events to distract something INSIDE China. There is a power struggle within the communist part, you get this temporary unblock so others can talk about instead of the power struggle. When the news of Tibet self immolation is on the news / high speed crash cover up, you get China is in feud with Vietnam over the oil exploring ship being "sabotaged" ...

  15. nsg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.niels-stensen-gymnasium.de

  16. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar: by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    IT'S A TRAP!

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  17. NSG und so you know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nsg ist ne schule voll cool yo waslos hier keine ahnung was soll ich posten alter wasn falsch hier
    klick

  18. So much for productivity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, there goes China's GDP growth.

  19. Re:Proof that the Chinesd gov't has a sense of hum by zAPPzAPP · · Score: 1

    So it's just like YouTube access from Germany now.

    Damn you chinese, stealing all our ideas! What's next, a note saying "GOMA" is responible for the blocking?

  20. Perspective change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The question is why anyone would want access to you tube in the first place. Half the time I exclude it from my search results as it is.

  21. Re:Proof that the Chinesd gov't has a sense of hum by meowris · · Score: 1

    That's what I call backward innovation. Not the speak the trolls roaming and commenting around the YouTube... Ugh

  22. I'm Chinese by conscarcdr · · Score: 1

    And look at the all the fucks I give.

  23. How YouTube was/is (partially) unblocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We monitor more than 10,000 URLs (plus users can add/test any new ones) from inside China to find out which ones are blocked and in what way. Here's our data on YouTube:
    https://en.greatfire.org/www.youtube.com
    https://en.greatfire.org/https/www.youtube.com

    As you can see, the unencrypted version of YouTube is almost completely blocked. The encrypted one (HTTPS) however has been accessible several times recently.

    I believe this is not so much to do with a changing policy or with unintentional changes, but rather blocking encrypted websites is done in a different way.

    Regular websites can be blocked by DNS Poisoning, by IP or by looking for keywords in the request, including the name of the host. Encrypted websites cannot be blocked by inspecting keywords. So if YouTube:
    1. Introduces a HTTPS version, and
    2. Changes it's IP (which is done frequently anyway), and
    3. The domain name isn't being DNS poisoned (or the user uses an alternative DNS service):
    Then it will be unblocked.

    Now, even the encrypted version of YouTube does not encrypt the actual streaming of videos - hence the site can be browsed but videos can't be viewed.

    We wrote a story on this topic recently: https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2012/mar/facebook-google-plus-uncensored-search-etc-without-vpn