Rebecca MacKinnon reports that despite some hopes a couple of days ago that the Typepad block had ended, it has since been confirmed that all Typepad blogs are now inaccessible in China.
She has also reported that Blogsome, the free blog service from WordPress, is also blocked.
Finally, she’s written a new article titled, China’s Internet: Let a Thousand Filters Bloom. Rebecca’s outrage at the US firms that facilitate the censorship is palpable, and she obviously has Cisco in the crosshairs of her keyboard.
1
By Gordon
That’s odd. I can access every Typepad-hosted site that I’ve tried to open – except for hers.
June 29, 2005 @ 6:16 pm | Comment
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By richard
Really odd! Did you read her post where she definitively says they’re all blocked? Sounds like she’s worng.
June 29, 2005 @ 6:40 pm | Comment
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By Imagethief
Rebecca MacKinnon: US Complicity in Internet Censorship in China
June 29, 2005 @ 6:57 pm | Comment
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By Gordon
Yeah. A bit of sensationalism, maybe?
June 29, 2005 @ 7:02 pm | Comment
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By Will
I can’t open most Typepad sites from Beijing.
Now, onto Rebecca’s article.
Where is Pogai (he of the “f*cking American hypocrites) when we need him? Moreso than anything else we discuss, this situation underscores the fundamental hypocrisy that undermines America’s claim to be the world’s moral compass for human rights. Especially with regards to China. We are only too happy to mine Chinese dollars while we breast-beat about the dreadful state of human rights in China. Appalling.
Here is the thing: I am fundamentally pro-free-trade and globalization, and capitalism in general. Richard, as you pointed out recently in a comment on my blog, it’s the worst system except for everything else.
But we have to be *intellectually honest* about these things. If we find it economically expeditious to sell the tools of censorship to China, then we have no business as a nation or government criticising China’s human rights. (I reserve the right for us individuals.)
Furthermore, we probably have no business as a nation complaining about Europe’s plan to lift its arms embargo on China. Why is it OK to sell the weapons but not the tools that help China to inculcate nationalism and a distorted picture of the world among its citizens? That’s awfully grey moral ground from where I stand.
So, what do we want as a nation? Who do we want to be? How do our businesses represent us?
Decide. Or shut up.
June 29, 2005 @ 7:09 pm | Comment
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By Gordon
Will, I suspect that she just posted it like that for the reason I stated above. If she had cared to do just a little bit of research, she would have found that Typepad isn’t completely blocked all over China.
June 29, 2005 @ 7:39 pm | Comment
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By Matt
It was blocked for about a week but suddenly started working again yesterday, oddly enough.
June 29, 2005 @ 8:37 pm | Comment
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By Zero37
I’m a first-time poster here who has been reading on this site for a while. I had to pipe up becasue my recently-creaed site is on blogsome which was just shut down by the filter goons.
Via a laborious process, using various proxies, I have found myself somewhat able to edit and post to my blog. Still, I can’t show it to my Chinese friends, which is something I would have liked to do.
I’d like to point out that if I wanted to be sure that I could use my blog, wanted to be sure I could show it to whoever I want, I would look to something like MySpace. I would say ‘well, they’re not likely to get blocked in the future, since they already sold out.’
I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks this way. The companies that compromise thier integrity by playing ball do more than gain access in China. They gain a speific benefit from censorship. If there were no censorship, the (presumed) acceptability of MySpace, which is a selling point of sorts, wouldn’t gain them any customers.
It’s this material gain, measured as increased market share,that Mirosoft shouldn’t accept. Bending to the will of the Chinese government means drawing customers away from hosts that refuse to bend. Microsoft wins and the companies with integrity lose.
June 29, 2005 @ 9:15 pm | Comment
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By Gordon
Microsoft has integrity?
June 29, 2005 @ 9:23 pm | Comment
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By Zero37
I suppose what I mean is this: Microsoft materially benefits from censorship because censorship draws more people to thier MySpace blog.
By contrast, Cisco and the others are less culpable. China, minus censorship, would likely still be buying Cisco’s routers.
In this way, the debate as to culpability seems mis-targeted.
June 29, 2005 @ 10:18 pm | Comment
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By Rebecca MacKinnon
Gordon,
You have every right to accuse me of whatever you want. That said, as I mentioned in the thread over on my own blog, when a Typepad staffer announces on the official Typepad blog that “all TypePad sites are currently being blocked in China,” it would be fair to assume the assertion might be based on something. They have no reason to sensationalize their situation. Some Chinese bloggers had also emailed me to tell me that the typepad.com domain was blocked, so I had no reason to doubt Anil’s assertion. Anil later clarified in my comments section that the picture appears more complicated.
No one would dare deliberately engage in “sensationalism” with hard-working bloggers like you on the case, I assure you.
June 29, 2005 @ 10:33 pm | Comment
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By Gordon
Rebecca,
You’ll have to forgive my skepticism when it comes to reporters. God knows they’ve never had a tendency to sensationalize anything for the purpose of selling a story.
My point was that if you had checked around at several of the China blogs for yourself you would have noticed that not all Typepad blogs are in fact being blocked. Come to think of it, I believe I sent you an email on the 28th stating just that.
“No one would dare deliberately engage in “sensationalism” with hard-working bloggers like you on the case, I assure you.”
Damn skippy!
June 30, 2005 @ 1:39 am | Comment
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By Laowai 19790204
Gordon, think you’d better be careful about accusing the media… you’re in it now!
June 30, 2005 @ 5:30 am | Comment
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By a blogger from China
That’s true, Typepad,blogs.ie(blogsome),weblogs.us r all blocked recently.And I’m afraid that more foreign bsp would be blocked by Chinese gov.
Tha’t really a sad thing for most Chinese bloggers.But we never be frustrated,we would continue our blogging.
more details can be found in http://blog.cnblog.org/ (in Chinese)
June 30, 2005 @ 5:55 am | Comment
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By richard
Thanks for the eyewitness update, Blogger, and thanks a lot for commenting, Rebecca.
June 30, 2005 @ 7:23 am | Comment
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By ymchow
I was working in China for the last couple days and I was able to access both the blogger and the typepad websites. I don’t know if it’s ture that all blogs are blocked.
June 30, 2005 @ 8:23 am | Comment
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By John
I can now access typepad sites from China, but they were blocked a few days ago.
July 1, 2005 @ 4:08 am | Comment
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By Roger
To the best of my knowledge these reports about our site, Blogsome being blocked by the Great Firewall of China are true.
Quelle domage.
July 19, 2005 @ 5:26 am | Comment