Late on Monday, China has blocked the access to Google’s owned video-sharing site YouTube. The US and international media reported late on Monday, the video-sharing site was practically inaccessible to the Chinese users.

 

Google confirmed the blockage and Scott Rubin, a company spokesman, released a statement saying that there was no official explanation for the blockage. “We do not know the reason for the blockage, and we’re working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users in China,” Rubins said.

According to various reports, the cause of YouTube’s ban in China is a video released during the weekend by Tibetan exiles showing violent scenes shot by Chinese police of their crackdown on a riot in Lhasa in 1988.

 

However, the Chinese officials declined to give an official reason for the ban. According to The Wall Street Journal, a Chinses official said only "Chinese government has taken up management of the network according to the laws", when asked abut the ban.

 

The Chinese government has taken a similar measure against YouTube last year on March 15,  a day after a riot in Lhasa in which 22 were killed.

Also, in the past, the Chinese government has blocked  the access to specific videos posted on YouTube.

 

China is not the only country that decided to block YouTube due to controversial videos. Thailand, Turkey and Pakistan have taken similar measures against the video-sharing site. However, the ban was lifted after the removal of the incriminated content.