YouTube has been blocked for 30 days in Egypt due to the controversial and largely unwatchable "Innocence of Muslims" film, which Judge Hassouna Tawfiq of Cairo deemed "offensive to Islam and the Prophet" Muhammad as he enacted the new constitution that includes a ban on causing insult to "religious messengers and prophets."
Variations of the 13-minute, 51-second long movie trailer on YouTube have caused views to swell to more than 5.1 million for a version titled "Muhammed Movie Trailer," uploaded 7 months ago on July 2, 2012.
For those of us who live in regions where YouTube has not been blocked, clicking on the video brings the following warning message from YouTube: "The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised."
With a whopping 62,225 thumbs down and 17, 567 thumbs up, the video is among the more popular ones -- but even trying to make it through the entire nearly 14 minutes of the laughable vocal dubbing and cartoonish, unfollowable plot makes Christians like me shake my head and cluck my teeth to think that this would be attributed to a believer in Christ in any way.
The action has driven the term "YouTube blocked" to the #1 position of hot topics on Alexa.com's "What's Hot" list that tracks the most popular pages on the web currently, according to their toolbar.
Critics say that the decision to block YouTube shows a lack of knowledge regarding technology in some legal sectors, stating that one offensive video does not condone the blockage of an entire popular website for many.
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