On December 3, 2006, the government of Iran blocked YouTube and several other sites to stop films and music from other countries from being seen.
Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6, 2007 for letting videos that were mean or discriminating to Turks and Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown. Because of a "virtual war" between Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Turks on YouTube, people from each side posted videos to hurt the other. The video that caused the banning said that Turks and Atatürk were gay. The video was first mentioned on Turkish CNN and the Istanbul public prosecutor sued YouTube for being mean to Turkishness. The court suspended access to YouTube while waiting for the removal of the video. The ban was criticized a lot. YouTube lawyers sent proof of removal to court and users could access the website again on March 9, 2007.
During the week of March 8, YouTube was blocked in Thailand. Many bloggers (people who have a "diary" online) believed the reason YouTube was blocked was because of a video of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. However, the government did not confirm or give reasons for the ban. YouTube was unblocked on March 10.
On the night of April 3, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand. The government said it was because of a video on the site that it said was "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claimed that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites with references to this video are blocked instead of the entire website. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban." Soon after this incident the internet technology blog Mashable was banned from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question.
YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) because she says that the site is making available a video footage made by a paparazzi (or celebrity photographer) in which she and her boyfriend are having sex on a Spanish beach. The lawsuit says that YouTube has to be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction (command) ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from going to the website.
The effectiveness of the measure has been questioned, since the video is not available only on YouTube, but rather has become an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned their earlier decision, ordering the filters to be taken down, even though the footage was still forbidden, but without technical support for its blockage.
On May 25, 2007 the state-owned company Maroc Telecom blocked all access to YouTube. There were no reasons given why YouTube was blocked. But the guesses are that it might have something to do with some pro-separatist group Polisario clips (Polisario is the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos that criticized King Mohammed VI. This block did not concern the other two private internet-providers, Wana and Meditel. YouTube became accessible again on May 30, 2007 after "Maroc Telecom" unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was only a "technical glitch".
In Australia, some schools, including all secondary schools in Victoria, have YouTube blocked from student access, after fights have been posted on YouTube.
Currently in China, the government has blocked YouTube. For several years, it has been unblocked but since March 24, 2009 it has been blocked.
According the site's terms of service, users may upload videos only if they have the permission of the copyright holder and of the people in the video. Pornography, defamation, harassment, commercials and videos that encourage criminal conduct may not be uploaded. The uploader gives YouTube permission to give out and change the uploaded video for any purpose, and they do not have permission anymore when the uploader deletes the video from the site. Users may view videos on the site but are not allowed to save them on their computers.
On June 19, 2007, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in Paris to launch the new localization system. The interface of the website is available with localized versions in 90 countries, and a worldwide version.
The interface of the YouTube website is available in 76 language versions including, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Bengali, Burmese, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Laotian, Mongolian, Persian and Uzbek, which do have local channel versions.
YouTube has been criticized for how poorly they manage user-generated content and because of how a number of their policies are considered unfair to content creators. YouTube has been criticized for not properly handling copyrighted content that is added in uploaded videos. The video recommendation algorithms used in YouTube persistently promote conspiracy theories and false information, as noted by some critics. There is also criticism that there are violent or sexually suggestive content involving popular characters in certain videos falsely claiming to be targeted to children. YouTube has also been criticized for attracting pedophilic comments in videos of minors performing activities.
Because YouTube keeps changing policies on the types of content that is eligible to be monetized with advertising, many content creators are concerned about these frequent changes. YouTube policies restrict certain forms of content from being included in videos being monetized with advertising. This includes videos containing violence, strong language, sexual content, "controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown" (unless the content is "usually newsworthy or comedic and the creator's intent is to inform or entertain"), and videos whose user comments contain "inappropriate" content. However, it is not clear what is the boundaries for what YouTube's policies specifically accept and do not accept. Some content creators also say that YouTube's policies also change too often. For example, on January 16, 2018, the requirement for a channel to be monetized is to get 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and at least 1,000 subscribers. Although YouTube's intent was to avoid monetizing videos of channels seen as controversial, but people criticize that this move greatly harms smaller YouTube channels.
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of London. It is the main part of the Borough of Greenwich, about 8.9 km east south-east of Charing Cross.
The Royal Greenwich Observatory is in Greenwich. It was originally built for the Astronomer Royal. The Oservatory created the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Greenwich is a town with a long history. It became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia, from the 15th century. This was the birthplace of many members of the Tudor dynasty, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace became ruined during the English Civil War. It was rebuilt as a hospital by Sir Christopher Wren. These buildings became the a military college in 1873, which lasted until 1998. The town became a popular resort in the 17th century. Many rich houses were built there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717). Estates were built above the town centre.
Greenwich was part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created.
Maritime Greenwich is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is on the River Thames. The site includes buildings along the riverfront, and surrounding the 17th century Queen's House. The group include the complex of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, the Royal Observatory and the Royal Park.