DUSHANBE, April 1, 2013, Asia-Plus – Internet service providers (ISPs) in Tajikistan have blocked access to YouTube again.

The chairman of Tajikistan''s Association of Internet Providers, Asomuddin Atoyev, has noted that access to the website was blocked following an order by the state-run Communications Service.

“On the morning of March 29, ISPs received an order from the state-run communications service agency to block access to YouTube and access to the website was blocked by the evening of the same day,” Atoyev noted.

According to him, the country’s leading Internet service providers received SMS instructions from the government’s Communications Service requesting the website to be blocked two week ago.

Asia-Plus has failed to reach the communications service agency chief, Beg Zuhurov, on the phone in order to find out the reason for blocking access to YouTube.

It is to be noted that over the last month, YouTube has posted a number of videos compromising the country’s authorities.

We will recall that it is not the time that the Tajik authorities has blocked access to YouTube.  The state-run communications service agency asked the Internet service providers on July 25, 2012 to block access to YouTube after the website posted a video about a July 23 rally in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) protesting against sending extra government forces to the city.

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.  Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.