[liberationtech] Cryptocat Censored in China

[Nadim Kobeissi]

There: https://twitter.com/cryptocatapp/status/282768509992308737


NK


On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Nadim Kobeissi <nadim at nadim.cc> wrote:

> Hi Martin,
> Thanks for the explanation, and thanks for everyone else for testing. I
> guess this was a false positive!
>
> I'll post a clarification that, at worst, this is just throttling.
>
>
> NK
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 5:28 AM, Martin Johnson <greatfire at greatfire.org>wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm the founder of GreatFire.org. Let me try to explain how we run our
>> tests. I'd very much like to get your feedback on how our system can become
>> more accurate and transparent.
>>
>> The two Crypto.cat URLs being tested can be viewed here:
>> https://en.greatfire.org/https/project.crypto.cat
>> https://en.greatfire.org/https/blog.crypto.cat
>>
>> Both pages state that the URLs are "x% restricted in China" but "0%
>> blocked". Next to the "Otherwise restricted" label, there's a link to
>> "Throttling" explaining our definition which in turn refers to
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth_throttling. A throttled websites
>> is slow but not blocked. Labeling it as throttled also suggests that it's
>> intentionally slow, which we cannot prove. A lot of foreign websites are
>> slow in China, but there are big differences. For example, we strongly
>> suspect that GMail and other Google services are actively throttled, to
>> discourage people from using them. Other websites could simply be slow
>> because of where they are hosted and the speed from China to that web host.
>>
>> On our test pages, if you click on any date in the calendar, you can view
>> our detailed test data. You can for example see that the "Host IPs" for
>> Crypto.cat returned when tested from the US and different locations in
>> China are the same. You can also verify the HTML title and the download
>> size, etc.
>>
>> Crypto.cat is not blocked in China now, but if it becomes popular, it
>> will most likely be blocked. If they use DNS poisoning you'd have to setup
>> mirror websites. If they block the IP, however, you can rotate the IP
>> addresses to get around it. We offer a service that does this at
>> https://unblock.cn.com and we'd be happy to help you reach as many users
>> as possible in China.
>>
>> Feedback very welcome.
>>
>> Martin Johnson
>> ---
>> https://FreeWeibo.com <https://freeweibo.com/> - Uncensored, Anonymous
>> Sina Weibo Search.
>>  https://GreatFire.org <https://greatfire.org/> - Monitoring Online
>> Censorship In China.
>> https://Unblock.cn.com <https://unblock.cn.com/> - We Can Unblock Your
>> Website In China.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 1:04 AM, Joss Wright <
>> joss-liberationtech at pseudonymity.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 05:48:34PM +0100, Ralph Holz wrote:
>>> >
>>> > PS: While I was at it, I checked the current DNS rewriting for
>>> > twitter.com. It still points to a Korean IP.
>>>
>>> Some of the more fun DNS poisoning in my experiments[1] were >=15
>>> apparently unrelated servers across China all redirecting torproject.org
>>> to 'tonycastro.net' or 'tonycastro.com', and a separate set redirecting
>>> to 'thepetclubfl.net'.
>>>
>>> A New Scientist journalist wrote up that work[2] and contacted both
>>> sites. Tony Castro[3] instantly threatened to sue everyone in sight for
>>> implying that he was a Chinese sleeper agent. The Pet Club webmaster had
>>> noticed the Chinese traffic and was interested to know where it had come
>>> from. :) (I suggested setting up a few China-focused pay-per-view
>>> adverts.)
>>>
>>> Joss
>>>
>>> [1]
>>> http://www.slideshare.net/josswright/through-a-router-darkly-remote-investigation-of-chinese-internet-f
>>> [1b<http://www.slideshare.net/josswright/through-a-router-darkly-remote-investigation-of-chinese-internet-f%5B1b>]
>>>
>>> http://www.pseudonymity.net/~joss/doc/work/presentation/2012/10/wright-censormap.pdf(Original)
>>> [2]
>>> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628936.300-florida-pet-spa-mystery-link-to-chinas-great-firewall.html(Requires registration.)
>>> [3] http://tonycastro.net/ (A life story worth Googling...)
>>>
>>> --
>>> Joss Wright | @JossWright
>>> http://www.pseudonymity.net
>>> --
>>> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
>>> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
>>>
>>
>> --
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>
>
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