Okay this is straight from the news, a Russian court today ordered all local internet service providers to block access
to Youtube and four other websites which it believes harbour and promote extremist views. The Russian court of the Eastern Federal District has asked the order be implemented immediately.
The court said that the sites be banned because Hitler’s writings such as Mein Kampf were put up online to be read while YouTube had videos uploaded which were entitles “Russia for Russians” which is a famous slogan used by far right groups in the country.
This is not the first time YouTube got the boot. A few other countries did ban YouTube in the recent years including Thailand which banned the site in 2007 after a user uploaded a short film which showed graffiti over a picture of Thailand’s king.
Recently this year Pakistan banned Youtube, along with other popular websites like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Flickr. Pakistan said that Youtube was broadcasting “sacrilegious content”.
The YouTube ban in Russia did however have some resistance with atleast one ISP, Rosnet saying that it will appeal the ruling.
There was no official comment from YouTube or Google however sources did say that this might be a temporary ban. Analysts believe that the ban is to send out a message and not against the site and might be lifted soon. Will the video be off of YouTube, unlikely as it does not violate any of its policies.