China Blocks Twitter, Wordpress, Hotmail & More
June 2, 2009 by Brie
As the 20th anniversary of the horrific bloody massacre at Tiananmen Square looms near (June 4), it shouldn’t be any surprise that the government of China has now cut off yet another form of communication. As of approximately 5:00pm (9:00GMT), access to the ever popular social sites Twitter and Flickr have been denied.
In addtional to the blockage of Twitter, there are widespread reports of denials for Hotmail, Live, and Wordpress. Internet users had already lost access to YouTube back in March, after graphic footage of China’s crackdown on protests by Tibetans back in 2008 were posted.
However, the sheer idiocy of blocking blogs boggles my mind. I guess having spent my entire life living in a democracy, I just can’t wrap my brain around being denied anything such as this. Considering blogs are used for so much more than just personal diaries these days, it seems that a very large section of the internet has now turned into no-mans-land for over a billion people.
For those of you in China wanting an easy way to evade the block, Twitter can still be accessed via third-party applications. These include TweetDeck and iTweet, to name a few. Your favorite services such as Hotmail, Flickr, and Live can also be accessed via a proxy.
Food For Thought: Does anyone think this may cut down on the amount of spam coming from China?
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The spam won’t decrease, in fact it will probably increase.
Well, welcome to the real world, where you get in touch not only with democracy, but also with the other side
Having lived in a (now ex-)communist country all my life before I finally got away, I have to say it’s something very ‘normal’ from where I’m coming originally… Some are lucky to be born in better ‘places’, others, like us, have to make our own fortune to live in a democracy.
That is JUST BIZZARE that in todays ages living in the 21st centry, that a government can control the people like that!
Tell them to get back Jack!!!
Glad I don’t live there cause I know what freedom is and I won’t allow a government take that away, no matter what it costs.
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