Sudanese authorities block “YouTube”

The Sudanese National Telecommunication Corporation (SNTC) has blocked the famous social website “YouTube”, because of its broadcasting some clips from the recent controversial anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” which was produced by a US-based filmmaker, depicting Prophet Mohammed as a philanderer who approves of sexual child abuse.

The 14-minute low-budget film caused outrage in conservative Muslim groups in many Arab and Muslim countries, who then stormed the U.S. embassies in Libya, Egypt, Tunis and Sudan.

As a result, the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three members of his staff were killed and at least five protestors were killed two of them were Sudanese.

The video has not been removed from YouTube, but access to it has been blocked in Egypt and Libya. Google rarely comments on individual videos or restricts access when it doesn't break the site's terms of service, but considering recent events the firm issued the following public statement:

"We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions. This can be a challenge because what's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video -- which is widely available on the web -- is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube.

However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries. Our hearts are with the families of the people murdered in the attack in Libya."

When the visitors of the “YouTube” in Sudan now try to get access to the website, they will come across a message stating that, “This site has been blocked”. The message is signed by the SNTC and asking the visitors to contact it for more information.

The move was met with angry critics by Sudanese activists and bloggers in the other social media sites such as “Facebook and “Twitter”, saying that it is not the proper solution to the problem.

It is worth mentioning that the SNTC has blocked many local sites during the recent protests against the sharp spiraling prices due to the lifting of subsidies on fuel as a measure of mitigating the country’s economic crisis, such as “Sudanese Online”, “Alrakooba” and  Huriyat Electronic Newspaper.