Security Octopus

Numerous Twitter users are reporting that access to Twitter and Facebook has once again been blocked in mainland China. This latest blockade comes one month after China has blocked access to these two sites, together with other major social networks and search engines.

According to ComputerWorld, Twitter has already been inaccessible in the last couple of days; Web2Asia now reports that since 8pm Chinese time Facebook has also been blocked. This has been confirmed by users on Twitter, some of which link the latest blockade to Uighur protests in Xinjiang, which had left over 150 people killed and over 1,000 wounded.

This latest attempt at censorship comes as no surprise as the Chinese government has decided to tighten its control over the Internet in the last couple of months. Unfortunately, the mechanisms of censorship seem to react faster and work better each time they’re employed.

Source: Mashable.com

Following last weekend’s deadly riots in its western region of Xinjiang, China’s central government has taken all the usual steps to block citizens from accessing foreign web services: aside from crippling Internet service in general, the authorities have blocked Twitter, removed unapproved references to the violence from search engines and has now apparently moved to bar its citizens from accessing Facebook from most parts of Mainland China just now. Two weeks ago, the government had already blocked just about every Google service, including communication tools like Gmail, Google Apps and Google Talk.

Web2Asia’s George Godula writes:

“As of today 8pm Chinese time Facebook seems not to be accessible from most parts of China Mainland anymore. On the China Telecom connection of our Shanghai office the service vanished at around 7:45pm. Friends in Hong Kong are reporting that they can still access the website.”

A quick test on WebsitePulse confirms the blocking of Twitter and YouTube (which have been restricted for a while) and now Facebook too, at least in some parts of the country.

Source: TechCrunch.com

On the 4th of June 2009 China has blocked most major social networks and search engines during the anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. Now, the Chinese authorities want to take it a step further, ordering that all PCs sold in the country, starting July 1, must come with software that blocks certain websites.

According to the Chinese government, who haven’t yet gone public with the announcement, but have warned PC makers about the deadline, this measure’s aim is to protect the Chinese from harmful content, primarily pornography. But since this same government has blocked sites like Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and Bing, it’s quite possible that this software’s primary aim is adding another layer of censorship over the existing Great Firewall.

The Chinese authorities have, however, taken a somewhat lax approach – for now. According to the WSJ, the software, whose Chinese name is “Green Dam-Youth Escort” needn’t be pre-installed on the PCs; it may simply come in the form of a CD, and the users can choose whether they want to install it or not. The software is designed in such a way that it allows transferring of user’s private information, as well as blocking sites other than pornography; according to software’s developer, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, it would have no reason to do so. It doesn’t sound very convincing, and given a choice, I’d definitely skip it; it’s unclear, however, whether the authorities plan to somehow pressure users into installing the software.

There’s always hope that the PC makers will try to resist these claims from the Chinese authorities, but it’s hard to imagine them saying no, given the importance of the Chinese market. Furthermore, as we’ve seen in this latest blockade, there’s always a technical workaround for these types of censorship attempts. However, if Chinese censors had control of what happens on user computers locally, as well as being able to block certain online destinations, it would make it much harder for users to circumvent such measures.