Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Google.com Inaccessible From China?

I’ve heard several reports now that Google.com is blocked from within China. Who else in China is seeing this? Whatever the case, it has certainly become easier for the Chinese gov’t to block Google.com without a public outcry, now that there’s a self-censored Google.cn (and for that, we have to blame Google). Piggy in the forum writes:

I’m in China. As of this week, you can only access Google.cn (the local censored version of Google). All overseas Googles (including Googles in HK, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam are a few I’ve tried) are blocked.

But Gmail is still available! That took a bit of working out, it seems. Even as I watched last Friday, the Gmail service became inaccessible, then accessible, then inaccessible again. On Monday (5 June) it was accessible again and seems to be stable. The problem, of course, is that Gmail is mail.google.com.

This does not mean that China has shut out the rest of the world. But it does mean that the Chinese regime is denying its people the opportunity to read the point of view of its political enemies. And inconveniencing a lot of people in the process.

This is what is so disquieting about China. In many ways it is incredibly free in this country – much freer than people might think. But the regime has shown that behind all the freedom and prosperity, it is still in control where it matters. All Chinese are aware of this and have reached their accommodation with the situation. (One conversation I heard last Friday between two Chinese colleagues: “It’s so annoying that I can’t use Gmail!” “Yes, but the government has probably blocked it because people are using it to do illegal things”. “You’re right! That’s probably the reason!” End of story.)

Google.com Inaccessible F ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (23)

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