Hidden Nook
"Because in Cyberspace, no one can hear you scream."
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Emergency Blog Alert: Chinese Firewall
[Media Source*] Brought to you by the Committee To Protect Bloggers
(Hat Tip: RConversation, Alpha Patriot)
According to Global Voices, China has blocked several more blog hosts. "Anti-blog and all blogs on blog-city.com has been blocked by the Great Firewall. Readers from China may access it via mirror site available at MSN: [click here]. Meanwhile, anti2 is coming soon."
With "political dissent" becoming an escalating problem it seems that China is clamping down on all expressions of free thought. China has already banned citizens from directly petitioning the government (due to riots over land seizers) and seems to have come to the conclusion that silencing cyber dissent will somehow resolve the internal pressures that boil within.
Some more famous bloggers have now shifted to other hosts that are not yet blocked, like MSN Spaces. While in the beginning of China's blocking history mainly western media were on that list, now almost all can be seen while the attention is moving to the blogs. In my practise it was pretty easy to circumvent those IP-blocks by using proxies, but for the new generation internet users it might be useful to explain how that works. (Source: China Herald)
According to RConversation, these domains have been totally blocked by China's firewall: Ego Weblog, Blog Spirit, Blog Easy, Blogzor, MazMe.com, Yes Blogger, Tblog.
Although this "blanket banning" may sound discouraging to many bloggers (especially those whose sites are hosted on the above mentioned domains) such actions by China reflect an attitude of desperation rather than concrete action. The government of China seems to be frustrated that it is unable to completely silence the messenger as the author is able to simply change their subdomain name and republish at a different "location." In order to get around the blanket ban, some bloggers have switched domain hosts entirely, although others are joining the "Adopt A Blogger" campaign, circumventing China's firewall entirely.
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I wonder if this recent clampdown on Chinese dissidents is culminating in something or if it is part and parcel for the PRP.
By 
Dreamer, at
4:53 AM EDT
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By Darnell Clayton ⢠12:42 AM ⢠Email Post ⢠â¢
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