How to Watch or View Restricted, Flagged and Not Available Videos in YouTube

The emergence of YouTube has created a new era in the media industry whereby it provides a free platform for users to share their stories, deliver their ideologies, showcase their talents, etc. However, some of the inappropriate contents have also created dispute between Youtube and the government in some countries. Some countries have actually banned or denied access to this online video due to the video contents which have violated the country’s policies such as homosexuality, politics, etc.

For instance, Thailand telecom authorities has blocked YouTube from the country last year because the online video site offered a 44-second slide show containing defaced photos of the country’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Other countries such as Turkey and Indonesia have also banned YouTube before. To avoid the unnecessary dispute which might arise in some countries, YouTube has actually restricted users from the particular countries to access some videos which might contain inappropriate contents disallowed in those countries. Besides that, another reason YouTube banned the access to these video is related to the global distribution rights. Users who try to access these video will be notified with a message stating that “This video is not available in your country”.

What can you do in the event the video that you want to watch is denied access? Well, there is a small trick here perhaps you can try. If you are denied access to a video, say, under this url,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjmpabc

What you can do is replace the above url with the following:
http://www.youtube.com/v/HGjmpabc

Generally, you just remove the “watch?” and replace the “=” symbol with “/”. This trick also works if you see this familiar notice:

This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube’s user community.

By clicking “Confirm”, you are agreeing that all videos or groups flagged by the YouTube community will be viewable by this account.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.