14 DAY TRIAL // It seems like the YouTube representatives and the Indonesian authorities couldn't reach an agreement over the long criticized anti-Islam movie appearing on the video sharing service. Today, IndosatM2 along with other Internet service providers based in Indonesia announced that they have imposed restriction for users trying to access Google's YouTube, MySpace and other video sharing websites, the International Herald Tribune informs. Although MySpace wasn't brought in discussion when the Indonesian officials analyzed the problem, users are not able to access the social network anymore.
For those of you who missed the news, Geert Wilders, a Dutch lawmaker, created and promoted an anti-Islam movie in which he criticized and offended the Muslims. The video caused all kinds of protests and riots around the world, the Netherlands embassies having to deal with activists in multiple areas of the world.
This is not the first time when YouTube gets banned in a certain country for the content appearing on its website. For instance, Thailand blocked the access to Google's video sharing service after a clip considered as offensive to the country's king appeared on the website. Because YouTube said that the clip didn't infringe any of the internal guidelines, it remained available so Thai users were not able to access the video service for quite a long period.
Now, it's interesting to see Google's reaction to the Indonesian ban. Just like I said last week, there are two options: either YouTube removes the video from appearing on the page, or the company introduces a new service version for the Indonesian people with special rules. However, removing the clip from the database is just a temporary resolution because this case will repeat anytime soon, so don't be too amazed if Google rolls out YouTube Indonesia in the near future.