Blogspot unblocked in China?

[UPDATE: I’m getting emails and comments that it’s blocked again. Maybe it was all a one-day reprieve for Chinese New Year.
LATER UPDATE: It IS unblocked — in certain places. See my later post on this.]

That is the word over at danwei,and at Soapbox Jams, and if true it is big news.

Last week, in Beijing, I was able to access a site on free blog platform Blogspot.com without using a proxy server to get around the Great Celestial Nanny, aka the Great Firewall.

A few hours later it seemed to be blocked again. But today, Brian Ruckle (of Tennessee and Beijing, and also of Soapboxjams.com) reports that Blogspot is indeed unblocked. Then I find that Google’s Cache function is suddenly available too. The Google Cache has been blocked for quite a while, apparently because it has the side-effect of making the content of other blocked sites available.

Is somebody sleeping on the job or is the Great Celestial Nanny just chilling out?

The blocking of blogspot was the nightmare of my existence in China, where I could post all I wanted but could never see my own blog, or any other blogspot site. When I arrived in Singapore and was able to access all my favorite blogs, it was like a dream come true.

One warning: There was more than one occasion last year when the ban was temporarily lifted, only to come crashing down again. So while this may be cause to celebrate, it may be too early to recite the blogspot ban’s eulogy. After all, it’s a holiday, and maybe too many of the country’s 30,000 Internet censors are away on vacation to keep the Great Firewall up and running as intended. Time will tell.

The Discussion: 16 Comments

I hate to say it, but the way things are looking at the moment I’d say it’s a Chinese New Year lapse rather than a change in policy. The CCP seem to be swinging back to the conservative line again, e.g. HK democracy, so i can’t imagine freeing the internet up is high on their list right now.

January 23, 2004 @ 9:20 pm | Comment

Hallelujah! Blogspot has been unblocked in China

Blogspot has finally been unblocked! I’m so happy. I don’t know when it was unblocked because I haven’t even tried to access blogspot sites recently without the help of a web based proxy server. Tonight, however, I tried to link…

January 23, 2004 @ 9:57 pm | Comment

Anyway I confirm it’s unblocked (maybe just the time thay install the upgraded version of the software) … looks good for now ! there are a few blogspot blogs I like, though I now read all the blogs with Bloglines.

January 23, 2004 @ 10:33 pm | Comment

What’s going on with Google and Blogspot?

It’s strange, you know, because everyone else is saying that Google’s cacheing function and all blogspot blogs (read: half the blogosphere) been suddenly unblocked, but from my base here there’s been no change at all. Natta. Could this be another…

January 23, 2004 @ 11:48 pm | Comment

Don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I tried to hit a blogspot site and it was blocked again. *sigh* One day I’ll be able to learn what’s going on in my friends’ life.

(Of course, they could email me, but that doesn’t occur to them.)

January 24, 2004 @ 12:26 am | Comment

Wow! Now I can finally read Atrios’s site again! The cache is blocked as of now, though (damn those 3 am internet watchers).

January 24, 2004 @ 3:15 am | Comment

I’m hearing mixed news now –any new observations?

January 24, 2004 @ 10:07 am | Comment

ADSL connection in Beijing, 11am: Blogspot and Google Cache still working. Morningsun.org still blocked. BBC Home Page accessible, but nothing beyond the home page.

January 24, 2004 @ 11:04 am | Comment

So strange! Adam in Tianjin says there’s been no change at all and blogspot remains inaccessible. Brian in Beijing wrote to me some hours ago and said it seemed the block was reimposed. Emile commented that the block was lifted…. Maybe the censors can’t make up their minds.

January 24, 2004 @ 11:32 am | Comment

This is all very weird. In the past the internet censors took only one thing very serious and that was their holidays. So both blocking and unblocking during the holidays would be a sensational move from Chinese perspective.
Anyway: hope it moves into the only obvious direction.

January 24, 2004 @ 11:40 am | Comment

Here in Beijing, on ADSL: blogspot is still unblocked. Google cache is blocked. This is weird; I assumed the country’s blocking system was centralized – it wouldn’t be effective unless the blocks worked at every router connecting the nation’s network to the outside world. But if I can get to blogspot and people in Tianjin can’t that means at the provincial level they have control! This means the amount of staff and resources the country has put on this is at least an order of magnitude higher than what was previously imagined.

Why un-block anything, though? It’s not like this part of the government is accountable to anyone. Or did someone high up ask for blogspot back? I imagine Google cache was an accident that was caught; this is something they’d never allow through. It makes the entire blocking system useless.

January 24, 2004 @ 1:36 pm | Comment

With blogger recently giving its users the capability to generate Atom (RSS/XML) feeds, together with many web-based RSS readers (My! Yahoo being the latest to join the league), such conscious filtering will very soon be rendered useless.

January 24, 2004 @ 2:39 pm | Comment

No change for blogspot sites here in Urumqi, even on ADSL. The Blogspot Blackout hit us out here the same time as everybody else – Jan ’03, right? I think if access continues in Beijing, there’s a good chance Adam is right and they’re opening select provincial windows.

Or they’re just passed out on baijiu…

January 24, 2004 @ 4:04 pm | Comment

Oieee
Doooooorei seu blog… passa lah no meu site e me diz c gosta 😉

February 12, 2004 @ 9:57 am | Comment

Fustration

I’ve spent the better part of a day trying to create a new weblog (for news feeds) on blogger.com. I continued to have problems and for some strange reason I couldn’t see past the obvious. While blogger is the program…

June 22, 2005 @ 12:18 am | Comment

it’s blocked in Shanghai, China. At least, I cannot browse *.blogspot.com without proxy.

August 21, 2005 @ 1:36 am | Comment

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