Because of Tibet, China Blocks YouTube

By Mike Nizza

China’s efforts to tame protests in Tibet and possibly others in its own provinces has spread to the Web, following a familiar pattern that has once again raised a question posed by Seth Mydans of The New York Times during the crackdown in Myanmar:

[Can] the much-vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government?

In both cases and others, an uprising began largely out of sight before spilling onto the Web in videos and images. Officials in Myanmar and China bother claimed that they were showing restraint while unconfirmed reports hinted at grim tolls.

In Myanmar’s case, a fleeing general’s claim of thousands of dead was never proven. The junta’s toll in October was 10, though no one’s been allowed to confirm that either.

Beijing said today that 16 have died in the protests so far, but a figure cited by exiles is five times that, according to the Times.

For those outside “Great Firewall of China” (who were unaffected by the blockade, unlike Pakistan’s recent gaffe that affected Web users worldwide), the Committee to Protect Bloggers has gathered many first-person videos from Tibet in a playlist on YouTube.

 

Aside from videos, a wealth of first-hand reports may be available inside China, though tracking them down may be difficult without Web sites like Agam’s Gecko and Global Voices, two critical hubs of information during the Myanmar protests that are likely on Beijing’s radar.

John Kennedy, the Chinese language editor at Voices, has posted frequent updates based on translated blog posts from inside Tibet and also a guide for others to evade China’s internet controls. His latest post is mostly urgent — the headline is “Fire on the streets of Lhasa, Tibet” — but one account that he cites hits an innocent note:

Lhasa is rioting…school was closed…spoiled my birthday…fighting in the city is brutal!