UK government censors YouTube videos

Big Brother Watch has been alerted to the fact that the UK government have been submitting requests to Google asking for certain Youtube videos and search results to be censored. When trying to access a blocked video, an error message is shown instead:

“This content is not available in your country due to a government removal request.”

YouTube Help gives the following explanation:

"YouTube occasionally receives requests from governments around the world to remove content from our site, and as a result, YouTube may block specific content in order to comply with local laws in certain countries."

At the moment it is unclear what types of video are being selected by the government for blocking, however Google provides a website detailing how many requests each country’s government have made for the removal of data.

Comments

[dyno]

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/

[Stevewc2]

How about a Freedom of Info request to see what interesting things we are being denied?

[me]

http://7.hidemyass.com/ip-1/encoded/Oi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9ZXNHcWl6UkRvNncmZmVhdHVyZT1wbGF5ZXJfZW1iZWRkZWQ%3D&f=norefer

[SadButMadLad]

When they say government they state "Goverment agencies" which I take to include the court and justice system. So they are probably removing libellous and other similar content not actual censoring by the state.

[Richard Calhoun]

This is outrageous!
Parents are able to censor the internet themselves so it is totally unacceptable that the Govt is censoring adults

[David Durant]

Worth an FOI request (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/) although I suspect the response will be "national security" or "ongoing investigation"....

[Marcus Junius Brutus]

Ummm - and if they are censoring some mullah inciting terrorism?

[Pixlink]

some screen grabs showing the particular video titles would be helpful.

[D]

If you use the link (as above, 3:12pm), do a bit of techy stuff via google francais, then you may be able to access.

[Daniel Craig]

The banned video is about people affiliated with the 'Lawful Rebellion' movement attempting to arrest a judge.

[Alex]

Hi - I've also reported on this at MindSetCentral...
http://www.mindsetcentral.com/archives/6276

[Peter Martin]

I live in England and come across sites regulaly that have been blocked. I tryed last week to get information to Heather Mills regarding the background to Britains secret state but her site had been blocked.
Go to my blog for that info, Type the following adress into the top bar on computor. ciaandbritainssecretdeathsquads.blogspot,com
Then go to a blog by Professor Claude Fischer entitled, A crime puzzle; violent crime declines in America

If you study the two you will see that they mirror each other. When I appeared on front page of Northwest Evening Mail 12 October 1999 I warned people about a Nazi militia targeting the area. The publicity made them flee and Barrow-in-Furness went from being one of the most violent towns in the country to one of the safest. David Blunkett came here to try to find out what had gone on. The programme I smashed was the CIA assasination squad that Obama recently discovered; the one that Dick Cheney kept secret from congress; the one Cheney said was only make believe. this is why the Arab countries are uprising now because they had been under CIA control too and that programme was global. Dont forget that America has over 1000 military bases world wide and these run Nazi militia. The dictators Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mubarack of Egypt were both suported by America, Britain and Nato until they could support them no longer. Those peoples rose because they lost their fear of the regiemes. The reason they attack Libia now is because they have lost their Empire now and they want it back.