[updates below]
As Tibet transitioned [1] into total lockdown and videos of the violent situation [2] proliferated on YouTube [3], people began noticing Saturday afternoon in China that the video-sharing website could not [4] be accessed.
Tech blogger Rick Martin on the CNET Asia Little Red Blog has done some tests [5] which confirm what many have assumed:
[5]
There were some videos uploaded to Youtube already about the demonstrations, but this block will definitely throw a wrench anyone's plans to upload more. That said, Chinese versions of Youtube, which have been told to censor this kind of sensitive content, are all still up and running as I write this.
At the same time, other tech bloggers have noticed increased sensitivity [6] online in general recently.
Which begs the question [7] of authorities in Beijing: just how stupid do you think people are?
March 17 update:
Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei.org has been following closely [8] reports of further problems people in China have been having online:
Youtube is blocked, the websites of The Guardian and L.A. Times newspapers are not currently accessible in Beijing; we have reader reports of the Yahoo home page not loading from around the country.
See the comments [9] on Goldkorn's post for feedback from around the country, and many more on his earlier post [10].
March 23: Bloggers in China began reporting [11] Saturday that YouTube can once again [12] be accessed. However, as Martin points out [13] and others have noticed, what's being seen at present is only a partial recovery.