In recent days, gazillions of BoingBoing readers (I lost count after one bazillion) sent in emails like this:
Google isn't just censoring in China. If you are in the United States, you can't see certain videos on Google Video. I stumbled across this Iraq footage (Link, alternate link, and another) on video.google.com, described as: "Detonation of Improvised Explosive Device used against Coalition forces. We found this one before they could use it against us." Too bad Google won't let me watch it. For whatever reason, the site reports that "This video is not playable in your country." If I were to upload the same file to YouTube or Revver I can see it, and the video doesn't contain sexual content or copyrighted stuff from a news organization or anything. Why is Google censoring these videos?
Google is not censoring these videos. A spokesperson at Google tells Boing Boing:
Video uploaders, using Google Video's 'Advanced Options' feature, can choose to blacklist countries. In this case the uploader blacklisted the US and only the US. When uploading the video the content owner set a preference not to show this content to users in the US.
Further investigation by BB confirmed that this was the case — the person who uploaded this video, not Google, chose to block US viewers.
Reader comment: Jeff says,
Xeni's comments that "bazillions" of Boing Boing readers have submitted links regarding Google's censorship of Iraq videos reminded me of a Bush joke I heard recently (although the joke itself is probably not recent). Link
