The Chinese government, as circumspect as always in its efforts to censor online content it deems subversive, has once again blocked access to YouTube in China without official explanation.
According to an article in the The New York Times, the ban, which follows past Chinese government crackdowns on Facebook, Yahoo, Google, and The New York Times, appears to have been prompted by a recent video posted to the site that purported to show Chinese police brutally beating Tibetans.
Google said it didn’t know why its site was blocked, and Xiao Qiang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, refused to acknowledge that the government had taken any action. “Many people have a false impression that the Chinese government fears the Internet,” he said at a news conference. “In fact, it’s just the opposite.”
