Peking Duck blocked as Twitter, Flickr, etc. open

Since about 10am today my site has been blocked. Hopefully in a few hours I’ll be able to say, “False alarm” and delete this post. But until then, I’ll be a bit nervous. Maybe it’s because of my comment in this thread yesterday, where a reader asked if I was worried about getting blocked and I replied:

this site has been blocked from time to time, but at this point the government realizes that while foreigners here can tolerate youtube and twitter being blocked, going without TPD would be altogether unacceptable.

In case one of the 30,000 censors felt offended by my seeming arrogance, let me explain – I was being humorous, ironic, funny. Now, can you lift the block?

Adding to the irony, for the entire week prior to the block this site was running June 4 stories non-stop. As soon as I stopped and put up a non-TAM post the ax falls. Go figure.

To be fair, it’s possible this is not a block at all but a server issue, though the way it times out, without the usual server error, makes me suspicious.

The Discussion: 51 Comments

Well, I’m getting through okay in California, though I did have one “unable to connect” message earlier tonight. Hope it’s a false alarm.

June 9, 2009 @ 3:47 pm | Comment

If you just got on in California, that means it’s not a server issue.

June 9, 2009 @ 3:55 pm | Comment

No problem from Spain

Hhhhhmmm…. So maybe our posts are considered “harmful” for the Chinese people… How tender they are…. πŸ˜‰

Definitively or post are not pornographic, not even erotic and least of all sensual…;-)

But well. Different cultures different customs, who am I to criticize…. maybe there is something in CH sensuality, eroticism and/or pornography that is beyond me.

June 9, 2009 @ 4:14 pm | Comment

Still here. Still connecting. Though like I said, I did have an issue earlier tonight.

June 9, 2009 @ 4:15 pm | Comment

Twitter open and PD closed

Who said the net nanny didn’t have a sense on humor?

This is one on you Richard.

You got the retribution of the goddess nemesis for your hubris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(mythology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris

June 9, 2009 @ 4:30 pm | Comment

seems true: NETWORK TIMEOUT
seems i’ll read your blog more after all

June 9, 2009 @ 5:07 pm | Comment

And I’m here on a proxy. Site traffic is dead since 70 percent of readers are in China.

June 9, 2009 @ 5:08 pm | Comment

From china I can only read you with VPN with normal connection I get Network Timeout

June 9, 2009 @ 5:28 pm | Comment

I like it. All the Chinese trolls are gone too.

June 9, 2009 @ 5:45 pm | Comment

No probs from the UK. Can you pull a few strings at your new job?

June 9, 2009 @ 5:47 pm | Comment

” since 70 percent of readers are in China.”

Maybe that is the reason. You just became too popular. πŸ˜›

June 9, 2009 @ 5:48 pm | Comment

Heh. Yeah, let’s hope the site stays blocked to keep the trolls out. Luckily for us Math managed to slip in one last comment in the Twitter Unblocked thread shortly before the ax fell.

June 9, 2009 @ 5:50 pm | Comment

Bad luck, richard. I suppose the only question is how long this is going to last.

Dror, many of the “Chinese” trolls on this blog that I’ve seen come from comfy locations like North America and Australasia. Perhaps richard could enlighten us whether that’s still the case or not.

June 9, 2009 @ 8:20 pm | Comment

8:22 PM Dongguan, VPN connects, no VPN no connection, sorry looks like your are blocked. Boooooooooooo!

June 9, 2009 @ 8:24 pm | Comment

Sounds like a good youtube movie

River Crab Strike Back

It was a long time ago in a place not so far away……

a Beijing Duck was having its lunch in Ma Le desert with a bunch of of grass mud horse……

June 9, 2009 @ 8:31 pm | Comment

I think so long as you were discussing TAM, it was ok as you see the b-washing is done already on that account. Since the discussion veered towards economics in that thread, you got blocked as the b-washing is still underway. IMO

June 9, 2009 @ 8:55 pm | Comment

Raj: In any case, I was joking. We love them!

June 9, 2009 @ 9:14 pm | Comment

I think the outside world should build another Great Firewall around the GCF ™ to block Chinese web sites like the following ones

China daily news
Global times
anti-cnn
all CCP related websitesin english and chinese
etc.. etc…

To make them unaccessible from outside China. You could access them through a proxy in China anyway… πŸ˜‰

Ah! Also block all TV transmission from CCTV! πŸ˜›

June 9, 2009 @ 10:06 pm | Comment

@ecodelta

Not a bad idea, I am thrilled!

But how are you going to deal with these oversea Chinese websites that are blocked in China yet still subscrible news from Xinhua?

June 9, 2009 @ 10:27 pm | Comment

Maybe the censors are also trying to be funny too,like the situation in the old American cartoons.Just kidding. πŸ˜›
Richard,trust your readers,if they really find your site interesting and informative,it won’t be much trouble to penetrate the GFW and keep reading,like me πŸ˜€
And by the way the FireFox-Vidalia combination is really some neat tools.

June 9, 2009 @ 10:47 pm | Comment

@By a Chinese
“….yet still subscrible news from Xinhua?”

Easy one. Redirect to anti-Xinhua website. πŸ™‚

June 9, 2009 @ 10:57 pm | Comment

Posting the Hong Kong candlelight vigil picture will get you blocked.

June 10, 2009 @ 5:10 am | Comment

Secret CIA plan to collapse the Chinese internet.

Worm/troyan/virus that insert a root kit in websites.

Rootkit contains ciphered pictures of sensible images like HK TIA square candle vigil. Image are inserted randomly in several webpages of infected sites.

Net nanny enters automatically in action and blocks the site.

When all major government and private websites are attacked, they are all blocked by net nanny. Result total net nanny overload and collapse of CH internet….

πŸ˜‰

June 10, 2009 @ 7:10 am | Comment

I guess they are scared. Really scared.

June 10, 2009 @ 7:11 am | Comment

By the way… did anyone notice that Microsoft’s new search engine is caleld Bing (η—…)? This could be an issue if they ever try to market it in China….

June 10, 2009 @ 8:12 am | Comment

Pug, that would be alarming if they blocked the site for the Hong Kong candlelight vigil photo. That would mean some guy is clicking through blogs and blocking them based on photos or whatever else bothers him (or her), as opposed to some computerized system looking for key words. And the photo was up the night of June 4 through the morning of June 9. I can’t see why they’d suddenly block the site because of it. Then again, it’s never a rational system.

Getting on with a proxy is now lethally slow. Any guest posts are welcome in the meantime.

June 10, 2009 @ 9:25 am | Comment

“Posting the Hong Kong candlelight vigil picture will get you blocked.”

You have inside info, Pug? I had my suspicions.

June 10, 2009 @ 10:39 am | Comment

Yes, Richard. You are blocked inside China. freedur.com has a solution to this problem. Cheers.

June 10, 2009 @ 12:29 pm | Comment

Yes, Richard. Your site is blocked in China. freedru.com has a solution to this problem. Cheers.

June 10, 2009 @ 12:34 pm | Comment

Sorry, I meant to type freedur.com. Check the software out. It’s free for 30 days.

By the way does anyone know a good free alternative? For Linux if possible?

June 10, 2009 @ 12:36 pm | Comment

Sorry. I meant to type freedur.com. Check out their software. It’s free for 30 days.

By the way, does anyone know a free alternative to this software? Preferably open source and for Linux.

June 10, 2009 @ 12:39 pm | Comment

Haha, you are pwned by Chinese government, like on 6-4.

Don’t worry, you can laugh at my ass when I get arrested…any day now.

June 10, 2009 @ 3:44 pm | Comment

Things are getting strange in here. I’d better put up a new post. Something special.

Serve, I use hotspot shield, though the way it usurps my screen every few minutes drives me nuts.

June 10, 2009 @ 8:47 pm | Comment

If you copy your site and replicate it in a different location under a new URL would it help?

For example “Le Canard de Beijing” http://www.LeCanardBeijing.fr. πŸ˜‰

Que pensez-vous ?

June 10, 2009 @ 9:24 pm | Comment

Eco… you mean Le Canard de Pekin…

June 11, 2009 @ 6:10 am | Comment

@Stuart 27,

I blame on math. Since he is posting his nonsensical posting about China wasn’t censored, Richard’s site got banned.

June 11, 2009 @ 7:51 am | Comment

LOL. I think it is great that China blocks so many sites that work from sympathetic points of view to explain things to outsiders.

Michael

June 11, 2009 @ 7:57 am | Comment

I heard a survey among the the Hong Kong Journalists and 30% of them practice self-censorship. Maybe you should think about doing that:)

June 11, 2009 @ 8:51 am | Comment

Most proxy bases solutions tend to slow down connection speed dramatically. So they create desire but take away performance. freedur software doesn’t appear to suffer from this problem.

June 11, 2009 @ 9:41 am | Comment

@Dror
“Eco… you mean Le Canard de Pekin…”

Hhhhmmm…… Le Canard Pekinois (www.LeCanardPekinous.fr) πŸ˜‰

What about Le Canard Echaine (The chained duck)

Regrettably that URL is already taken πŸ™

http://www.lecanardenchaine.fr/

πŸ˜‰

June 11, 2009 @ 1:20 pm | Comment

Correction

http://www.LeCanardPekinois.fr

June 11, 2009 @ 2:30 pm | Comment

Day 3 of the block with no end in sight. Sorry, a little too stressed to put up a new post. It’s incubating.

June 11, 2009 @ 3:55 pm | Comment

Richard

Time to use your Guanxi now. Ask your friends in Global Times and Chinese media, if they know anyone higher up, see if they can help you unblocked this site. Or meet the censors and have a nice and friendly conversation with them, in Wale’s words, have a”friendly meeting to get to know each other a bit.”

Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales did something similar last year,
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2008/10/jimmy-wales-mee.html
I guess it has something to do for Wiki’s continuing unblock after Olympic Game (also as you pointed out few weeks before, even the article about Tiananmen is accessible).

June 11, 2009 @ 4:27 pm | Comment

Michael T makes a good point. Despite the fact some trolls will label him as being “anti” China, richard does make an effort to be constructive.

June 11, 2009 @ 8:24 pm | Comment

Richard. I can help move you to a different server. It might do the trick. The block might be due to various reasons, most likely another site sitting on the same server.

June 11, 2009 @ 10:14 pm | Comment

“The block might be due to various reasons, most likely another site sitting on the same server.”

A collateral damage?

At least It seems that by now Chinese collateral damage just squash peking ducks.

Somewhat better than American collateral damage by all means… πŸ˜‰

June 12, 2009 @ 3:27 am | Comment

whoa, you been blocked, consider it a badge of honour

June 12, 2009 @ 2:20 pm | Comment

@Raj – Actually I think some of these guys would find even Tiexue and Strong Country to be anti-China lickspittle running-dogs of the west. I really couldn’t think of what more Richard could do to give the benefit of the doubt to the Chinese government whilst still staying in reasonable touch with reality.

June 12, 2009 @ 4:50 pm | Comment

I am talking with the site designer and hosting company today to see what can be done. I’m actually kind of enjoying it. πŸ™‚

June 12, 2009 @ 5:34 pm | Comment

Ah yes! The pleasure of been tortured by the net nanny dominatrix. As masochist experience not my prefered one, but I hope you are enjoying it. πŸ˜‰
And they complain about pornography! Strange cultural differences indeed

June 12, 2009 @ 7:45 pm | Comment

[…] course, if Crittenden had done a bit of research he’d know this site has been blocked in China since June, and that it criticizes and questions (and sometimes even praises) China on a fairly […]

October 2, 2009 @ 2:27 am | Pingback

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