Removing YouTube censorship to facilitate business growth
In order to generate further revenue and continue to leverage growth from the Internet’s Attention and Network economies, it is necessary for YouTube to maintain and continue to develop a global presence. One strategy is to negotiate the removal of any censorship implemented at nation-wide level, thereby maximising its demographics, market-share and global visibility.
As of March 2010, several nations still have a ban in place which restricts YouTube’s content from being accessed and Mainland China and Pakistan are two notable examples (Somerville, 2009 & Walsh, 2010). In both instances, the ban was the result of user-generated video content which was deemed inappropriate by authorities within both of these countries and resulted in a block of the entire website (Somerville, 2009 & Walsh, 2010). Since 2007, Mainland China has issued two bans of YouTube, the latter, still in place today (Schwankert, 2007 & Sommerville, 2009). Similarly, Pakistan’s High Court has ordered several bans of YouTube since 2007 but in each case, they have been lifted after a short amount of time (Pakistan lifts YouTube ban, 2007).
Due to the combined population of these two nations and the percentage it contributes towards the world’s total citizenry- approximately 22% it is advantageous for YouTube to ensure any access restrictions are demolished to allow for greater market exposure (World Population Projections, 2010). Increasing in size by 22% would result in an expansion of the existing YouTube network effect as more users will increase content, which equates to more advertising space. Businesses and brands that choose YouTube as an advertising platform will also be exposed to a significantly larger market and global audience (refer to advertising revenue for further information). Advertisers could further utilise the local and global attention economies by implementing geographically specific ads where appropriate, for more information on please refer to advertising revenue.
China
China’s initial ban of YouTube occurred in October 2007 and was speculated to coincide with the Chinese Congress Party’s political gathering. No official communication relating to the restriction was released by the government or media, but in the past, China has placed restrictions on online information without warning when it pertains to sensitive topics such as Tibet, Taiwan, Falun Gong or anything else which potentially, could challenge the Government (Schwankert, 2007). The ban was however lifted in March 2008, again without any communication and the logic behind the decision was not formally made known (Schwankert, 2007). March 2009 saw YouTube being blocked again for politically motivated reasons, this time it was speculated the ban was due to user-generated videos displaying uniformed Chinese soldiers accosting monks within a Tibetan monastery. The idea of free expression would not appear to be favourable by the Chinese government as the restriction still stands today (Quentin, 2009). As a result, YouTube has lost a potential market share to the world’s most populated country (World Population Projections, 2010).
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZLzKBvvGMg&feature=player_embedded
(YouTube, 2008)
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddWrqocf4n8&feature=player_embedded
(YouTube, 2006c)
Pakistan
YouTube’s ban in Pakistan shares a similar story to China, although in their case, the initial ban in 2007 was religiously motivated and made public by the Pakistan authorities who deemed certain video content to be blasphemous and offensive to the predominately Islamic community. Media figures speculate that the user generated video footage displaying election rigging may be the real reason behind the restriction (Pakistan lifts YouTube ban, 2007). YouTube was only inaccessible for a few hours whilst the inappropriate content was being removed, however as a result the restriction had an accidental knock-on effect to the rest of the world and caused significant global YouTube outages and downtime (Pakistan lifts YouTube ban, 2007). March 2010 also saw Pakistan place another ban on the site, this time “International Draw Mohammed Day” and the video footage that this event entailed resulted in YouTube being blocked by request of Government authorities. YouTube agreed to remove the offensive content, however the site was still inaccessible for 11 days.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKncDLnqYh8&feature=player_embedded
(YouTube, 2010b)
As an online business it is crucial that YouTube maintains a high level of uptime for its member base. As per the above paragraph, YouTube sells online space to generate revenue and the consequences of any unexpected downtime could result in penalties from clients who have contractual agreements in place (Mashable, 2009).
As you can see from the above– the reasons behind the block of YouTube were politically or religiously motivated, therefore the negotiations for censorship removal will need to be treated with sensitivity, careful consideration will also need to be applied towards any local laws and customs. With grassroots convergence comes a shift in power from the institutions to the folk, so the successful removal of any censorship may have to be lead by the digital participants of these nations internally and in parallel with YouTube's initiative.
