[liberationtech] China just blocked Google.com

[Adam Fisk]

Thanks Martin. Do you know if Google Talk is still accessible (
talk.google.com)?

-Adam


On Friday, November 9, 2012, Martin Johnson wrote:

> Today, Nov 9, 2012, http://www.google.com was blocked in China. It's the
> first time since we started tracking online censorship in China in February
> last year that this has happened. Here's what we know:
>
>    - The subdomains www.google.com, mail.google.com, google-analytics.com,
>    docs.google.com, drive.google.com, maps.google.com, play.google.comand perhaps many more are all currently DNS poisoned in China. Instead of
>    the real IP addresses, any lookups from China to any of these domains
>    result in the following IP: 59.24.3.173. That IP address is located in
>    Korea and doesn't serve any website at all.
>    - This means that none of these websites, including Google Search,
>    currently work in China, unless you have a VPN or other cirumvention tool.
>    - Using a DNS server outside of China doesn't help. A lookup of
>    www.google.com to 8.8.8.8 is also distorted, by the Great Firewall.
>    - So far you can still access other country versions of Google such as
>    www.google.co.uk.
>
> You can see an overview of different Google sites here:
> https://en.greatfire.org/search/google-sites. You can choose any of them
> and test them in real time to stay updated.
>
> Affecting more users than ever
>
> Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were all blocked before they attracted more
> than a small number of users in China. We've argued before that the
> authorities didn't dare to fully block GMail since it has too many users
> already. Fully blocking Google goes much further. Google Search is only the
> second search engine in China (after Baidu) but with an online population
> of more than 500 million that still leaves it with many millions of daily
> users. According to Alexa, it's the Top 5 most used website in China. Never
> before have so many people been affected by a decision to block a website.
> If Google stays blocked, many more people in China will become aware of the
> extent of censorship. How will they react? Will there be protests? Check
> out reactions by Weibo users on FreeWeibo.
>
> Temporary or permanent?
>
> The Communist Party of China is currently holding its 18th Party Congress
> in which new leaders of the party and the country are formally chosen. The
> fact that Google is blocked now is surely no coincidence. The big question
> is whether it will be unblocked again once the congress is over. We will
> closely monitor developments.
>
> By the way.. Analytics
>
> The fact that http://www.google-analytics.com is blocked doesn't just
> mean that you can't access the web interface in China. It means that visits
> by Chinese users won't be tracked by Google anymore. Foreign websites using
> Google Analytics to track their visitors will currently track 0 users
> coming from China, whether or not their website itself is blocked.
>
> What to do?
>
> Many VPNs and other circumvention tools have been working poorly or not at
> all in the last few days. The free iPhone app OpenDoor is still working,
> though it has also suffered glitches recently. Another method of accessing
> Google Search is to use one of their other country versions such as
> www.google.co.uk or www.google.ca. These may also be blocked of course.
>
> You can also access Google directly using one of their IP addresses. These
> don't appear to be blocked (yet). Here are some:
>
> http://74.125.228.64
> http://74.125.228.65
> http://74.125.228.66
> http://74.125.228.67
> http://74.125.228.68
> http://74.125.228.69
> http://74.125.228.70
> http://74.125.228.71
> http://74.125.228.72
> http://74.125.228.73
> http://74.125.228.78
>
> From: https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2012/nov/googlecom-blocked-china
>
> --
> Best
> Martin Johnson
> ---
> https://FreeWeibo.com - Uncensored, Anonymous Sina Weibo Search.
> https://GreatFire.org - Monitoring Online Censorship In China.
> https://Unblock.cn.com - We Can Unblock Your Website In China.
>
>
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