[liberationtech] China just blocked Google.com

Sat Nov 10 09:26:44 PST 2012

I'd expect in either case it wasn't a mistake and probably not a test -
they already know they can do it. I'm guessing it was at least in-part to
flush some usage and networks of people out. -Ali

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 12:22 PM, Martin Johnson <greatfire at greatfire.org>wrote:

> Google unblocked again - was it a mistake or a test?
>
> https://en.greatfire.org/blog/2012/nov/google-unblocked-again-was-it-mistake-or-test
>
> Adam - you can test Google Talk and any URL at https://en.greatfire.org
>
> On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Adam Fisk <afisk at bravenewsoftware.org>wrote:
>
>> 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.com and 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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>
>
>
> --
> 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.
>
>
> --
> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
>
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