China may be open to the Olympics, but it has shut off access to Apple’s iTunes Store — apparently because of a new album dedicated to Tibet. According to the album’s sponsoring organization, more than 40 Olympic athletes from North America, Europe and China downloaded it “as an act of solidarity with Tibet” before the shutdown.
The New York-based Art of Peace Foundation has charged the Chinese government with trying to block access to Songs for Tibet, which features music by Sting, Moby, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and others, as well as 15 minutes of talking by exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.
Apple Investigating
The group has described China’s blocking of Internet sites that it dislikes as “The Great Firewall of China,” and it has called the album “a celebration of Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s philosophy of peace, nonviolence and compassion.” While there is no China-based iTunes store, users in that country had been able to log onto the site in the U.S.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which has authority over Internet use, has not responded to requests from news media for comments.
Apple said Friday it was looking into why access to the iTunes Store blocking. According to news reports, the popular music site has been unavailable for the past week. Huang Yuna, an Apple spokesperson based in Beijing, said the company has noticed that Chinese users have had problems logging into the site.
The album has already had some success, which the publicity surrounding the blocking could increase. The foundation said it was a top seller in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and has reached the number-four spot on Billboard’s chart of top downloaded albums.
The foundation added that the Chinese government is striking back in other ways as well. It said china.org.cn, a portal…