So what has YouTube blocked for a month and how will it affect users of the U.S. site? Luckily, it's not something that will affect the popular sharing service worldwide, but just in Egypt.
A report on Feb. 9 from Twin Cities Pioneer Press indicates that access to the site in Cairo has been blocked for 30 days. The reason for the recent court ruling against YouTube there is due to the fact an anti-Islam film was on the site that "caused deadly riots across the world." Judge Hassouna Tawfiq presided over the case and delivered the verdict, calling the film "offensive to Islam and the Prophet (Muhammad)." His ruling was made in the Egyptian capital where protests started last September against the movie. There's speculation that due to precedent this ruling might not be enforced though.
The film in question is called "Innocence of Muslims" and shows a portrayal of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad as a religious fraud, womanizer and pedophile. The film was produced over in the U.S. by someone who was born as an "Egyptian-born Christian" and is now a U.S. citizen. While the video may be free speech or expression in other countries, the newest version of Egypt's constitution includes a ban for any insults towards "religious messengers and prophets."
While Google did not honor requests made to take the video down from its video sharing site, it did block access to the video in certain countries, which included Egypt. However, the video still remains on the site in many other countries. Human rights lawyer Gamal Eid said of the recent YouTube ban in Cairo, that the decision may have come due to "a lack of knowledge among judges about how the Internet works."
Eid said of the decision:
"This verdict shows that judges' understanding of technology is weak. The judges do not realize that one wrong post on a website does not mean you have to block the entire website."
YouTube currently ranks #3 on Alexa's top 500 websites for the United States, trailing just Google and Facebook. While there have been numerous videos taken down from the website over copyright infringement or other issues, there has yet to be any sort of reason to have YouTube blocked in the U.S. or any of its individual states.
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