YouTube Blocked in Beijing

2/365 - 2007-10-16
If you can see this photo and you’re in China, Flickr’s available. But so much for my video feed.

Thomas Crampton reports, and a quick check confirms: YouTube videos now unavailable at least from my seat in Beijing. The standard “connection reset” tactic is being used. This comes at the same time as previous blocks on Blogger and Flickr apparently have been lifted. I’ve even been getting intermittent function out of the FeedBurner relays that have been plaguing so many China-oriented bloggers. I even heard that some have gotten through to the BBC.

[UPDATE 12:59 p.m.]: Ken Wong has noticed that Google Blogsearch has also disappeared. He asks: 黑色星期四？ (“Black Thursday?”)

[UPDATE II 5:35 p.m.]: Commenters all over the web are looking for a circumvention method. I have my issues with this service, but Hotspot Shield, introduced by “花崗齋雜記 Jottings from the Granite Studio” seems to have the bandwidth to handle YouTube.

[UPDATE III Oct. 31]: YouTube appears to be back.

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Graham Webster

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Comments

18 responses to “YouTube Blocked in Beijing”

  1. 半亩塘闲话

    youtube被封…

    更新：riku也同时发现了这个问题。来自Graham Webster的报告说，在北京已经不能访问youtube。我证实在北京确实不能访问了。又一个顶级的优秀网站要离我们而去了么？C:Documents and Settingsshizhao…

    Reply
  2. Moses Avatar
    Moses

    Chinese regime is evil…

    Reply
  3. Arnoud Avatar
    Arnoud

    Is this gonna be a permanent thing? If so, i am like totally speechless…. really… totally.

    Reply
  4. Graham Webster Avatar
    Graham Webster

    Arnoud: There’s never any way to predict whether a block is permanent; who knew Blogger would come online when the 17th Congress had so much else tightened…

    Reply
  5. norman Avatar
    norman

    热烈祝贺百度荣膺中国政府官方搜索引擎！

    Reply
  6. Global Voices Online » China: Youtube Blocked

    […] has also confirmed the blocking of youtube. Share […]

    Reply
  7. YouTube blocked in China?

    […] 16:50 There are now reports from Techworld and Transpacifica confirming the blockage on YouTube, but also saying that Flickr has been […]

    Reply
  8. Arnoud Avatar
    Arnoud

    🙂 Is there any way to circumvent this block though? I ve been trying a few “proxy” sites but even though youtube does appear, the videos do not… saying it s a flash problem or something… anyone?

    Reply
  9. Graham Webster Avatar
    Graham Webster

    I’m getting reasonably good results from Hotspot Shield, which was first introduced to the China blogosphere by the historian over at “花崗齋雜記 Jottings from the Granite Studio.” It’s a pain in the ass for some things, but it seems to provide the bandwidth necessary for YouTube, where others may fail.

    Reply
  10. China: YouTube blocked and then some at Global Voices Advocacy

    […] never any way to predict whether a block is permanent,” writes a reader to Transpacifica, one of the earliest blogs to report the news; “Who knew Blogger […]

    Reply
  11. Global Voices amin’ ny teny malagasy » Blog Archive » Shina : Youtube voasakana

    […] blaogy Transpacifica dia nanamarina koa io vaovaon’ny fanakanana an’i Youtube tsy hoa avy any Shina […]

    Reply
  12. oversea's chinese Avatar
    oversea’s chinese

    i am leaving china

    Reply
  13. 草莓 : 草莓周刊（第32期）：十七“大和谐”，华南虎“复活”，公民记者“迷”

    […] 中共十七大期间突然解封Blogspot，作给国际媒体看多么自由。不过草根史官立即加以忠诚记录，所以欲盖弥彰。更可笑的是，有十七大报道的英国《经济学人》 杂志到了内地忽然被统一撕去若干页，好在有网络在，有心人还是能看到 。因为假意解封某几个网站的同时，更疯狂地加紧对RSS种子的封杀和对各种言论的堵截。而这也弄得BSP们删文标准乱得一塌糊涂。到了大会第四天，Youtube忽然挂了，这或许让中文视频网站的竞争力加大了。而微软Live搜索、雅虎搜索、Google博客搜索忽然一致转向百度首页闪了腰 ，这令人不得不感叹 “终于轮到了我”…… 不过，封锁者妄图愚民，也挫伤了创造力，但是却无法让历史倒转，人们越来越智慧。按照古语，他扔出的绳子越多，把自己吊死的可能性越大，倒行逆施者必自毙。 […]

    Reply
  14. NYNG♥千湖芬蘭 » Blog Archive » 草莓妙语

    […] 到了大会第四天，Youtube忽然挂了，这或许让中文视频网站的竞争力加大了。而微软Live搜索、雅虎搜索、Google博客搜索忽然一致转向百度首页闪了腰 ，这令人不得不感叹 “终于轮到了我”…… 不过，封锁者妄图愚民，也挫伤了创造力，但是却无法让历史倒转，人们越来越智慧。按照古语，他扔出的绳子越多，把自己吊死的可能性越大…… […]

    Reply
  15. Transpacifica » YouTube May Be Back

    […] problem on Transpacifica over the last hour, I have discovered that in the last few minutes, YouTube went from being blocked to unblocked. For the record, I’m accessing from a wireless […]

    Reply
  16. Bembino Avatar
    Bembino

    I often travel to Beijing and do not have any problems with sit blocking because I use http://strongvpn.com account. As a big plus for Chinese people that it is translated into Chinese language! For its quality I do not have any claims. It is probably the best VPN service in internet.

    Reply
  17. youtube被封 | 半亩塘闲话

    […] 来自Graham Webster的报告说，在北京已经不能访问youtube。我证实在北京确实不能访问了。又一个顶级的优秀网站要离我们而去了么？ […]

    Reply
  18. Stephen Avatar
    Stephen

    The easiest way to unblock YouTube  is to get a VPN service.
    I used this one from China last year:
    http://www.highspeedvpn.com/

    Basically it will allow access to all sites the Great Firewall might decide to block.

    Reply

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