I haven’t fully established how far the TypePad block extends or whether it is a block of all TypePad hosted sites. Fons has noted that some sites have not been affected, although from here I’m seeing a block of "anything.typepad.com" plus domain-mapped sites such as this one, Glutter and Andres Gentry.
It’s pointless to protest to Chinese authorities, of course, so I’ve decided to just take this lying down and continue to use a proxy to visit my own site and others.
Really, in cases like this nothing can be done. As the below article notes, it’s not just a matter of going up against the Chinese government, it’s also a matter of taking on major IT companies.
the Chinese government had no trouble keeping a firm grip on the
reins of the news media. Then came the Internet. Could the government
open the floodgates to the waves of information washing up on every
shore yet keep out the ideas it was afraid of, such as ones about
sexuality, democracy, religious expression, and Taiwanese independence?
So far, the answer has been yes. China’s Internet is the most
efficiently censored in the world. From a computer in China, try to
visit the Web site of the banned activist organization Human Rights in
China, based in New York City, and your request will be blocked by
filters in the network.Instead of the group’s home page, you’ll get an innocuous error
message such as "File not found." Hundreds, maybe thousands, of sites
are similarly blacklisted. The exact number can’t be determined and
changes daily.
Now China’s experiment in cyberspace censorship is about to take a
dramatic turn. A massive upgrade to the country’s Internet will soon
give China a robust, state-of-the-art infrastructure easily on a par
with any in the developed world. China Telecom Corp., in Beijing, is
investing US $100 million in what it calls the ChinaNet Next Carrying
Network, or CN2.
The former national telephone monopoly is snapping up new network
routers from four of the largest telecommunications equipment companies
in the world: Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks of the United States;
the French giant Alcatel; and Huawei Technologies, the only Chinese
company to get a CN2 contract. During the next 12 months, the
routers—the vertebrae of an Internet backbone—are to be installed in
200 cities throughout China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and
municipalities.
As a demonstration of my weakness in the face of the Cisco, Juniper and Alcatel, I have decided to cave in and give them free advertising. Larger images can be obtained by clicking on the pictures. These would make keen additions to blogs hosted by TypePad, Blogspot, BlogSpirit and some other providers. I recommend that like-minded bloggers on those hosts join me in a mass display of weakness.
For those who are still not yet blocked, you can show your weakness in the face of corporate-communist collaboration by posting this:
There is no hope, surrender to Cisco and the CPC.
June 22nd, 2005 at 7:03 pm
Chinese Censorship, American Corporate Assistance
AsiaPundit notes that at least some TypePad blogs are being blocked by the People’s Republic of China. Technical details
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:15 am
China Cracking Down on Blogs
Fellow Red Ensign Blogger myrick writes from Shanghai: Hi Ray; This is off topic. I'm not above link-whoring but I wouldn't not post this if the circumstances weren't somewhat urgent. China has ressurected it's blackout of TypeP…
June 23rd, 2005 at 6:55 am
BANNED in China!
If you are reading this, you are not in China.
June 24th, 2005 at 6:17 pm
Is there a particular URL that you would like people to link back to with this graphic…?
(This is necessary, I would think)
June 25th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
Good point. Linking to here is fine for the moment - I’ll update this post with more details and links.
June 26th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Damn it! this website is a two-month-old baby and the comm govt is trying to kill it. But maybe it could have been more torlerative if there haven’t been so many June 4 posts.
June 26th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Good idea!
But what about the software providers? Who does the actual filtering?
In Iran and Tunisia it’s Secure Computing. They deny selling to Iran, but admit selling to Tunisia. See my email exchange with thier PR manager:
http://ymor.blogspot.com/2005/06/and-i-almost-stopped-blogging.html
July 7th, 2005 at 2:10 am
China cracks down on blogging . . . again
Myrick calls for help tracking access for Chinese blogs, as several Chinese blogs have become inaccessible from major cities in China. “Sponsors of the current crackdown include . . .”…
July 18th, 2005 at 4:18 pm
是它们支持了审查制度……
不断有blog被GFW封掉，直到上个月TypePad、Blogsome、weblogs.us相继失陷，高潮来了……
接下来会发生什么不知道，但是似乎有必要了解一下究竟是谁支持了这个严格的审查制度？
这�…
October 9th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
How do you know whether your site has been blocked by china? mine is a blogspot one.
January 19th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Erm - I’m reading this in China - I guess you’re not banned anymore
Lawrence / shanghaiguide.com
February 20th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Actually aren’t we buying into the ideas perpertuated by Western powers as to who is good and who is bad? Aren’t we being ethno-centric when we “insist” that there is one way to go about in this world and that all other ways are invalid and wrong? Sounds a bit like those right-winged fundamentalists Christians talking to me.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:25 am
Kelvin… we’re not really buying into anything by pointing out that certain resources are blocked. If this embarrasses the persons blocking the resource then this only means that they are aware that they ought not to because they hold the view that it is wrong.
A useful analogy might be someone who is wearing a short skirt. If someone points out that “you’re wearing a short skirt” then there is no moral judgment attached and it’s a mere statement of fact. The person hearing it, however, might think one of two things, either they think it’s morally questionable for them to be wearing said skirt and thus are embarrassed. Alternatively they might not attach a moral judgment to exposing this flesh and thus say “yes, what’s you’re point?”
“This blog is banned in China” makes no moral judgment, it’s the people reading the statement who do so. In this case if the persons doing the blocking don’t want it pointing out that they are blocking a resource because it embarrasses them then it’s an implicit recognition of the fact that they think their blocking is immoral.
Applied moral relativism is fantastic