After much speculation it seems Google were not responsible for
withholding a video of the Iraq conflict from US audiences, but the
original poster of the video.
The rather boring 17-second video presents stateside viewers with an
error message, claiming they are not authorized to view the video. The
video shows nothing but an explosion, from quite a distance, followed a
distant cloud of smoke.
A Google spokesperson set the record straight: "
Video uploaders, using Google Video"s "Advanced
Options" feature, can choose to blacklist countries. In this case the
uploader blacklisted the US and only the US."
News teams accross the world misinterpreted this as another move
towards censorship, after recent controversy over Google"s operations
in China.