YouTube

Videos

All logged-in users of YouTube can upload 15-minute long videos. Users who have used the site for enough time and follow the rules can upload videos that are up to 12 hours long. A user needs to verify the account to do this, however. Everyone could upload long videos when YouTube started, but in March 2006 a ten-minute video limit was put in. The limit was changed to 15 minutes in July 2010. Most video formats can be uploaded to YouTube, and videos can also be uploaded from mobile phones.

When YouTube first started, viewers needed the Adobe Flash Player plug-in to play videos. By January 2010, web browsers were feature-rich enough that this was no longer necessary, and YouTube turned to a web browser-native model to watch videos.

Iran

On December 3, 2006, the government of Iran blocked YouTube and several other sites in an attempt to stop films and music from other countries from being seen.

Turkey

Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6 2007 for letting videos that were insulting or discriminating to Turks and Atatürk, who is the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown, because of a "virtual war" between Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Turks on YouTube, with people from each side posting videos to hurt the other. The video that caused banning alleged Turks and Atatürk to be 'gay'. The video was first mentioned on Turkish CNN and the Istanbul public prosecutor sued YouTube for being mean to Turkishness. The court suspended access to YouTube while waiting for the removal of the video. The ban was strongly criticized. YouTube lawyers sent documentary of removal to court and users could access the website again on March 9 2007.

Thailand

During the week of March 8, YouTube was blocked in Thailand. Many bloggers (people who have a "diary" online) believed the reason YouTube was blocked was because of a video of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. However, the government did not confirm or give reasons for the ban. YouTube was accessible from March 10.

On the night of April 3, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand. The government said it was because of a video on the site that it said was "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claimed that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites containing references to this video are blocked instead of the entire website. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban." Soon after this incident the internet technology blog Mashable was banned from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question.

Brazilian model lawsuit and banning that came after

YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) on the grounds that the site is making available a video footage made by a paparazzi, in which she and her boyfriend are having sex on a Spanish beach. The lawsuit says that YouTube has to be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from going to the website.

The effectiveness of the measure has been questioned, since the video is not available only on YouTube, but rather has become an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned their earlier decision, ordering the filters to be taken down, even though the footage was still forbidden, but without technical support for its blockage.

Morocco

On May 25, 2007 the state-owned company Maroc Telecom blocked all access to YouTube. There were no reasons given why YouTube was blocked. But the guesses are that it might have something to do with some pro-separatist group Polisario clips (Polisario is the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos that criticized King Mohammed VI. This block did not concern the other two private internet-providers, Wana and Meditel. YouTube became accessible again on May 30th, 2007 after Maroc Telecom unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was only a "technical glitch".

Australia

In Australia, some schools, including all secondary schools in Victoria, have YouTube blocked from student access, after fights have been posted on YouTube.

China

Currently in China the government has blocked YouTube. For several years it has been unblocked but since the past five years it has been blocked.

Localization

On June 19, 2007, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in Paris to launch the new localization system. The interface of the website is available with localized versions in 90 countries, and a worldwide version.

Country	Language	Headquarters	Launch date	Notes
United States	English	San Bruno	February 14, 2005	First location and worldwide launch
Brazil	Portuguese	São Paulo	June 19, 2007	First international location, First international location outside the United States, first location in South America, and the first Latin American Country.
France	French, and Basque	Paris	June 19, 2007	First European Union location, and the first location in Europe.
Ireland	English	Dublin	June 19, 2007
Italy	Italian	Rome	June 19, 2007
Japan	Japanese	Tokyo	June 19, 2007	First Asian location
Netherlands	Dutch	Amsterdam	June 19, 2007
Poland	Polish	Warsaw	June 19, 2007	First location as a Slavic country.
Spain	Spanish, Galician, Catalan, and Basque	Madrid	June 19, 2007
United Kingdom	English	London	June 19, 2007
Mexico	Spanish	Mexico City	October 11, 2007
Hong Kong	Chinese, and English	Hong Kong	October 17, 2007	Blocked in Mainland China, Macau used US/Worldwide version
Taiwan	Chinese	Taipei	October 18, 2007
Australia	English	Sydney	October 22, 2007	First location in Oceania.
New Zealand	English	Auckland	October 22, 2007
Canada	English, and French	Toronto	November 6, 2007
Germany	German	Berlin	November 8, 2007
Russia	Russian	Moscow	November 13, 2007 - February 12, 2026	Advertising, monetization, as well as payment and subscription-based services are currently suspended as of March 2022. Blocked by the government as of February 12, 2026.
South Korea	Korean	Seoul	January 23, 2008
India	Hindi, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu	Mumbai	May 7, 2008	First South Asian location
Israel	Hebrew, Arabic, and English	Tel Aviv	September 16, 2008	First Middle East location
Czech Republic	Czech	Prague	October 9, 2008
Sweden	Swedish	Stockholm	October 22, 2008	First Scandinavian Country.
South Africa	Afrikaans, Zulu, and English	Johannesburg	May 17, 2010	First African location. YouTube now has accessible versions in all continents except for Antarctica.
Argentina	Spanish	Buenos Aires	September 8, 2010
Algeria	Arabic, and French	Algiers	March 9, 2011	One of the first locations in the Arab world; multiple Arab world locations were launched
Egypt	Arabic	Cairo	March 9, 2011
Jordan	Arabic	Amman	March 9, 2011
Morocco	Arabic, and French	Rabat	March 9, 2011
Saudi Arabia	Arabic, and English	Riyadh	March 9, 2011
Tunisia	Arabic, and French	Tunis	March 9, 2011
Yemen	Arabic	Sana‘a	March 9, 2011
Kenya	Swahili, and English	Nairobi	September 1, 2011
Philippines	Filipino, and English	Quezon City	October 13, 2011	First Southeast Asian location
Singapore	Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil	Singapore City	October 20, 2011
Belgium	French, Dutch, and German	Antwerp	November 11, 2011
Colombia	Spanish	Bogota	November 30, 2011
Uganda	English, and Swahili	Kampala	December 2, 2011
Nigeria	English	Lagos	December 7, 2011
Chile	Spanish	Santiago	January 10, 2012
Hungary	Hungarian	Budapest	February 29, 2012
Malaysia	Malay, and English	Kuala Lumpur	March 22, 2012
Peru	Spanish	Lima	March 25, 2012
United Arab Emirates	Arabic, and English	Dubai	March 29, 2012
Greece	Greek	Athens	May 1, 2012	First location in the Balkans
Ghana	English	Accra	June 5, 2012
Indonesia	Indonesian, and English	Jakarta	June 14, 2012
Senegal	French, and English	Dakar	July 4, 2012
Turkey	Turkish	Istanbul	October 1, 2012
Ukraine	Ukrainian, and Russian	Kiev	December 1, 2012
Denmark	Danish	Copenhagen	February 7, 2013	Multiple Nordic locations were launched.
Finland	Finnish	Helsinki	February 7, 2013
Norway	Norwegian	Oslo	February 7, 2013
Switzerland	German, French, and Italian	Zurich	April 9, 2013	Multiple European locations were launched.
Austria	German	Vienna	April 11, 2013
Romania	Romanian	Bucharest	April 25, 2013
Portugal	Portuguese	Lisbon	May 7, 2013
Slovakia	Slovak	Bratislava	May 21, 2013
Bahrain	Arabic	Manama	August 16, 2013	Multiple Middle East locations launched
Kuwait	Arabic	Kuwait City	August 16, 2013
Oman	Arabic	Muscat	August 16, 2013
Qatar	Arabic	Doha	August 16, 2013
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian	Sarajevo	March 17, 2014	Multiple European locations launched
Bulgaria	Bulgarian	Sofia	March 17, 2014
Croatia	Croatian	Zagreb	March 17, 2014
Estonia	Estonian	Tallinn	March 17, 2014
Latvia	Latvian	Riga	March 17, 2014
Lithuania	Lithuanian	Vilnius	March 17, 2014	Baltic area fully locally accessible
Montenegro	Serbian, and Croatian	Podgorica	March 17, 2014
North Macedonia	Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian, and Turkish	Skopje	March 17, 2014
Serbia	Serbian	Belgrade	March 17, 2014
Slovenia	Slovenian	Ljubljana	March 17, 2014
Lebanon	Arabic, and French	Beirut	May 1, 2014
Thailand	Thai	Bangkok	May 19, 2014
Puerto Rico	Spanish, and English	San Juan	August 23, 2014	Used US version before launch. First and only location as a U.S. territory, and the first location in the Caribbean.
Iceland	Icelandic	Reykjavik	September 2014	Most recent location in the Nordics.
Luxembourg	French, and German	Luxembourg	September 2014
Vietnam	Vietnamese	Hanoi	October 1, 2014	First contemporary communist location
Libya	Arabic	Tripoli	February 1, 2015	Blocked in 2010; unblocked in 2011.
Tanzania	Swahili, and English	Dodoma	June 2, 2015	Multiple African locations launched.
Zimbabwe	English	Harare	June 2, 2015	Most recent African location
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani	Baku	October 12, 2015	First location in the Caucasus. Multiple Post-Soviet locations were launched.
Belarus	Russian	Minsk	October 12, 2015 - December 2024	Monetization services are currently suspended as of December 2024.
Georgia	Georgian	Tbilisi	October 12, 2015
Kazakhstan	Kazakh	Astana	October 12, 2015	First and only location in Central Asia
Iraq	Arabic	Baghdad	November 9, 2015	Most recent location in the Arab world
Nepal	Nepali	Kathmandu	January 12, 2016 - September 3, 2025	Multiple South Asian locations launched. Banned alongside 25 other social media platforms. Restored after the ban,
Pakistan	Urdu, and English	Karachi	January 12, 2016	Blocked in 2012; unblocked in 2015.
Sri Lanka	Sinhala, and Tamil	Colombo	January 12, 2016
Jamaica	English	Kingston	August 4, 2016	First location as an independent country in the Caribbean.
Malta	Maltese, and English	Valletta	June 19, 2018
Bolivia	Spanish	La Paz	January 30, 2019	Multiple Latin American locations launched.
Costa Rica	Spanish	San José	January 30, 2019
Ecuador	Spanish	Quito	January 30, 2019
El Salvador	Spanish	San Salvador	January 30, 2019
Guatemala	Spanish	Guatemala City	January 30, 2019
Honduras	Spanish	Tegucigalpa	January 30, 2019
Nicaragua	Spanish	Managua	January 30, 2019
Panama	Spanish	Panama City	January 30, 2019	All Central American countries area fully locally accessible except for Belize.
Uruguay	Spanish	Montevideo	January 30, 2019
Paraguay	Spanish	Asunción	February 21, 2019
Dominican Republic	Spanish	Santo Domingo	February 21, 2019
Cyprus	Greek, and Turkish	Nicosia	March 13, 2019	Most recent European Union location
Liechtenstein	German	Vaduz	March 13, 2019
Venezuela	Spanish	Caracas	March 10, 2020	Most recent location in both Latin America and South America. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music became available on the same day. All countries in South America now have localized versions except Guyana and Suriname.
Papua New Guinea	English	Port Moresby	June 10, 2020	Most recent location in Oceania. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music became available on the same day.
Bangladesh	Bengali	Dhaka	September 2, 2020	Most recent location in South Asia.
Cambodia	Khmer	Phnom Penh	August 25, 2022
Laos	Lao	Vientiane	August 25, 2022	Most recent location in both Asia and Southeast Asia
Moldova	Romanian, and Russian	Chişinău	March 26, 2024
Armenia	Armenian, and Russian	Yerevan	May 7, 2026	Most recent location in Europe and Caucasus and last global location

Testing language

The interface of the YouTube website is available in 76 language versions including, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Bengali, Burmese, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Laotian, Mongolian, Persian and Uzbek, which do have local channel versions.