I just found a breaking news story that has not yet made the Techmeme, or Google news rounds: Veoh turns off international service. The company which has received over $25M in financing is apparently, as of today, blocking out many international countries. I found this info via Wikirage where I noticed the wikipage for Veoh has been under constant edits today. A look at Google blogs shows many accounts from enraged bloggers who have been blocked out without notice.
Initial reports suggest Veoh is no longer available in United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Guam, Jamaica, Barbados, El Salvador, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Colombia, Cyprus, Romania, the Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Panama, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Lithuania and Egypt, amongst other countries.
Whatever the reason, if intentional, its a sad setback for the freedom of digital borders when people of other countries are considered not valuable or relevant enough to have the option to participate and share on the new global stage.
*update: user posted notes/quotes from Veoh:
#1: “Unfortunately Veoh has ended service in your country due to a low concentration of users. Veoh is maintaining service in countries when we have the highest concentration of viewers.”
#2: “Veoh is maintaining markets when we have the highest concentration of viewers.”
