The lengths governments are going to to block websites is getting sophisticated by the day, in Bangladesh users are reporting that Youtube, the video sharing site has been inaccessible since Friday.  Other file-sharing sites like esnips and mediafire are facing the same fate.

Apparently these sites have been blocked at the International Internet Gateway (IIG) level as they can be accesses through proxy.  In essence Bangladeshi gateway providers are blocking this sites.  Global Voices reports that:

Mango and BTCL (formerly BTTB) are the official IIGs (International Internet Gateway) in Bangladesh. Starting last April, by regulation, all Bangladeshis ISPs have to route their international traffic to either Mango, or BTCL, who send the traffic over either the submarine cable or the vsats.

This means that whoever wants to view these sites is not able to irrespective of who their ISP is.  Blogger. Tropon apeals to the government to end this as he gives proof of the filtering.  The ban was also confirmed by a Bangla newspaper, Prothom Alo.

We at CPB feel that this should end forthwith.

E-Bangladesh reports a “crackdown on internet users” in that country.

RAB & BTRC pinpointing internet users with fast connections.
ISPs instructed to reveal admin password, user data.
“Traffic scanners” to monitor internet users.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications regulatory commission are even going house to house to find users with fast connections, according to E-Bangladesh, who received a leaked memo from the agency.

Update: There seems to be a pretty pronounced crackdown country-wide in Bangladesh which has been fabulously underreported (unreported would probably be closer to the mark) in the U.S. According to Voice of Bangladeshi, that country’s military commander, Gen. Moeen Ahmed is currently visiting the U.S. I am a pretty regular consumer of media and I have not heard one word about this in the traditional media.