January 24, 2004

Mixed reports on the Blogspot ban in China

Very interesting, how the ban is unchanged in Shanghai and apparently most other Chinese cities, but has been completely lifted in Beijing and Dalian. See the comments to Adam’s post and to my own to see what bloggers in the various geographies are saying.

The most interesting observation is that this inconsistency implies that the censorship is being controlled at a local level as opposed to centrally. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that it’s inexplicable and bewildering.

Baked by @ 5:09 pm, Filed under: General

The Discussion: 3 Comments

1 By Emile

Yep, works in Beijing, and so does the google cache – I’m not sure but it does seem that the google cache has been working for some time here, since before the new year I think. But then I use the french google, I have trouble accessing the english one (that problem probably has moe to do with proxies than with censorship – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t).

Strange stuff …

January 24, 2004 @ 8:57 pm | Comment

2 By Adam

For those of you in Beijing or the rest of China, try this. I just checked out the cache, and it worked for a normal site (slashdot.org). As we know, the reason the cache was blocked was that it allowed anyone to bypass China’s blocklist.

I think I’ve figured it out, though. I believe Google is working more closely with the PRC on this. Before it was the whole cache that’s blocked – but now I can get to the cache of slashdot.org, but Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)’s cache is still blocked, just like the site.

There was some discussion (anyone have a link?) about Google working more closely with the PRC to dissaude the government from blocking Google altogether. Is this another step in that same process? Is Google voluntarily blocking cache to Chinese residents to the sites the government doesn’t like?

Some more research is in order.

January 24, 2004 @ 10:23 pm | Comment

3 By Adam Morris

Very interesting theory. Perhaps they’re testing out Beijing and Dalian as a test subject.

There isn’t any recent articles on this, and it’s unlikely to be in the tombs of the Chinese press. I’ll look around though.

January 25, 2004 @ 2:22 am | Comment

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