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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."

6 of 47 comments (clear)

  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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. 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.