YouTube

YouTube is a free video sharing website that lets people upload, view, and share contents. Contents can be rated with a like or dislike, most contents can be commented on if logged in to an account, and the number of times a video has been watched (known as "views") is put on the site. Users who have accounts can also subscribe to channels. At the moment, Google (a search engine company) owns and operates YouTube. Many different types of videos can be put onto the website, such as educational content, animations, and funny stuff. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005 by six or seven former workers of PayPal. 

 Features 

 Videos 
YouTube needed the Adobe Flash Player plug-in to play videos in the past. However, in January 2010, YouTube tried using the built-in features of web browsers so people would not need to use Adobe Flash player to watch videos.

All YouTube users can upload 15-minute long videos. Users who have used the site for enough time and follow the rules can upload videos that are 12 hours long. A user needs to verify the account to do this, however. Everyone could upload long videos when YouTube started, but in March 2006 a ten-minute video limit was put in. The limit was changed to 15 minutes in July 2010. Most video formats can be uploaded to YouTube, and videos can also be uploaded from mobile phones.

 Banning 
YouTube is blocked in many schools because it allows children to search for videos online that would otherwise distract them from their lessons, much like how other social networking sites and game sites are blocked for the same purpose. But at a higher level than schools (and in workplaces), even some governments have blocked YouTube access to their country's public, but their reasons can vary. 

 Iran 
On December 3, 2006, the government of Iran blocked YouTube and several other sites in an attempt to stop films and music from other countries from being seen.

 Turkey 
Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6 2007 for letting videos that were insulting or discriminating to Turks and Atatürk, who is the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown, because of a "virtual war" between Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Turks on YouTube, with people from each side posting videos to hurt the other. The video that caused banning alleged Turks and Atatürk to be '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 strongly criticized. YouTube lawyers sent documentary of removal to court and users could access the website again on March 9 2007.

 Thailand 
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 accessible from 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 containing 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.

 Brazilian model lawsuit and banning that came after 
YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) on the grounds that the site is making available a video footage made by a paparazzi, 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 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.

 Morocco 
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 30th, 2007 after Maroc Telecom unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was only a "technical glitch".

 Australia 
In Australia, some schools, including all secondary schools in Victoria, have YouTube blocked from student access, after fights have been posted on YouTube.

 China 
Currently in China the government has blocked YouTube. For several years it has been unblocked but since the past five years it has been blocked.

 Terms of service 
According the site's terms of service,YouTube Terms of Use, accessed 5 May 2007 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.

Localization
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.
 Country Language Headquarters Launch date  (worldwide launch and first global location) English  San Bruno   Portuguese São Paulo   French, and Basque Paris   English  Dublin   Italian Rome   Japanese Tokyo   Dutch Amsterdam   Polish Warsaw   Spanish, Galician, Catalan, and Basque Madrid   English London   Spanish Mexico City   Chinese, and English  Hong Kong   Chinese Taipei   English  Sydney   English  Auckland   English, and French Toronto   German Berlin   Russian Moscow   Korean Seoul   Hindi, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu Mumbai   Hebrew, Arabic, and English Tel Aviv Google launches YouTube ישראל September 16, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Czech Prague   Swedish Stockholm Launch video unavailable when YouTube opens up in Sweden October 23, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2012.  Afrikaans, Zulu, and English 	 Johannesburg Google launches YouTube Suid-Afrika May 17, 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Spanish Buenos Aires   Arabic, and French Algiers   Arabic Cairo   Arabic Amman   Arabic, and French Rabat   Arabic, and English Riyadh   Arabic, and French Tunis   Arabic Sana‘a   Swahili, and English Nairobi   Filipino, and English Quezon City   Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil Singapore City   French, Dutch, and German Antwerp Google launches YouTube Belgique November 11, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Spanish Bogota YouTube launches localized website for Colombia December 1, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2011.  English, and Swahili Kampala Google Launches YouTube Uganda  December 2, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2012.  English Lagos Google to Launch YouTube Nigeria Today  December 7, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2012.  Spanish Santiago Google launches YouTube Chile  March 19, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2012.  Hungarian Budapest Google Launches Hungarian YouTube  March 12, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2012.  Malay, and English Kuala Lumpur YouTube Launches Local Domain For Malaysia March 22, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2012.  Spanish Lima YouTube Peru Launched, Expansion continues March 27, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2012.  Arabic, and English Dubai   Greek Athens Google launches YouTube Ελλάδα May 1, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Indonesian, and English Jakarta  "YouTube Launches Indonesian Version", June 15, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2012.  English Accra  "Google launches YouTube in Ghana" , June 22, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2012.  French, and English Dakar  "YouTube launches local portal in Senegal", Jubr>
[3] itag 120 is for live streaming and has metadata referring to "Elemental Technologies Live".July 16, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2012.  Turkish Istanbul  "YouTube's Turkish version goes into service", October 1, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2012.  Ukrainian, and Russian Kiev   Danish Copenhagen   Finnish Helsinki   Norwegian Oslo   German, French, and Italian Zurich   German Vienna   Romanian Bucharest   Slovak Bratislava   Portuguese Lisbon   Arabic Manama   Arabic Kuwait City   Arabic Muscat   Arabic Doha   Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Sarajevo Google launches YouTube Bosna i Hercegovina March 17, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Bulgarian Sofia   Croatian Zagreb   Estonian Tallinn   Latvian Riga   Lithuanian Vilnius Google launches YouTube Lietuva March 17, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian, and Turkish Skopje Google launches YouTube Македонија March 17, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Serbian, and Croatian Podgorica Google launches YouTube Црна Гора March 17, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Serbian Belgrade Google launches YouTube Србија March 17, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Slovenian Ljubljana   Thai Bangkok   Arabic, and French Beirut   Spanish, and English San Juan Google launches YouTube Puerto Rico August 23, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Vietnamese Hanoi Google launches YouTube Việt Nam October 1, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.  Arabic Tripoli Google launches YouTube ليبيا February 1, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.  Icelandic Reykjavik Google launches YouTube Ísland June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2015.  French, and German Luxembourg Google launches YouTube Luxembourg June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2015.  Swahili, and English Dodoma Google launches YouTube Tanzania June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2015.  English Harare Google launches YouTube Zimbabwe June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2015.  Azerbaijani Baku   Russian Minsk   Georgian Tbilisi   Kazakh Astana   Arabic Baghdad   Nepali Kathmandu   Urdu, and English Karachi   Sinhala, and Tamil Colombo   English Kingston   Maltese, and English Valletta   Spanish La Paz    Spanish San José    Spanish Quito    Spanish San Salvador    Spanish Guatemala City    Spanish Tegucigalpa   Spanish Managua    Spanish Panama City    Spanish Montevideo    Spanish Asunción    Spanish Santo Domingo    Greek, and Turkish Nicosia   German Vaduz   Spanish Caracas   English Port Moresby   Bengali Dhaka   Khmer Phnom Penh   Lao Vientiane   (last global location) Romanian, and Russian Chişinău 

Testing language
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.

 References 

 Other websites 

 YouTube.com
 YouTube mobile site
 YouTube Blog
 YouTube founders comment on the Google.com acquisition of YouTube

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