Global Voices Online

China: iTunes is blocked and it's Apple's fault

Friday, August 22nd, 2008 @ 07:37 UTC

by John Kennedy

Countries:: China
Topics:: Freedom of Speech, Business, Music, Technology
Languages:: English
Special:: Olympics

This post is from our coverage of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China, curated by John Kennedy and sponsored by Reuters. · All posts

Silicon Hutong blogger David Wolf notes that the iTunes Music Store is now blocked in China, assumes this was due to the release on iTunes of a Tibetan music album, assumes Apple chose to release it during the Olympics as an act of “passive-aggressive panda-punching,” and then advises Apple choose between building a market in China and displaying this kind of bi-polar behavior.

Posted by John Kennedy

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3 Responses to
“China: iTunes is blocked and it's Apple's fault”

August 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
Jack Alton:
1
Well that’s absolute bull in’it? China keeps throwin’ a hissy fit every-time it sees something it doesn’t like on the internet. Retarded is what it is.
Apple too though - can’t say they didn’t see this coming, what with China keepin’ throwin’ hissy fits every-time it sees something it doesn’t like on the internet.
Two retarded entities went up and made this retarded lil’ stint of retarded controversy that makes my retarded head hurt just thinking retarded-ly about it (because I retarded-ly did not go to sleep last night as I surfed the retarded underbelly of the internet).
Bah.
August 22nd, 2008 at 16:46 pm
Leslie:
2
I’m currently in Beijing, not using VPN, and have no trouble accessing the iTunes store and listening to preview clips from the album in question (including the interview with the Dalai Lama).
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 am
mary:
3
jack alton, you need some serious help or some serious sleep. what’s with the use of the word retarded a million times? your comment didn’t make a lot of sense and turned out to be offensive and hurtful at the same time. yuck.

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