China: State censors block all Google services

Spotted via tweets from friends in Tibet and China last night: news that China's government blocked access to Google (and related apps like Google Calendar and Gmail). The broad display of censorship capabilities lasted from one hour to more than a day, depending on who you ask in China and what ISP they're using. Some are reporting that the delay is still ongoing at the time of this blog post. Snip from Guardian:

Earlier in the day, the main state and communist party media - Xinhua and People's Daily - condemned Google for providing links to pornographic websites through its search engine. Last week, the government ordered the US company to halt foreign website searches as a punishment.
Many Chinese netizens believe the move is intended to distract attention away from the domestic controversy over Green Dam censorship software, which must be sold with all new computers from 1 July.
In a rare move, the US has lodged a complaint over the tightening of censorship rules. Google agreed to self-censor in compliance with requests by local officials after setting up a China subsidiary and locally hosted website in 2005. One reason for this controversial decision was that its services were frequently being disrupted or slowed. That has been rare since.

China blocks Google services (Guardian, via @rmack)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

Anyone else see goatse in the emblem ?
Anonymous

well, now i lived in a place could not access to the outsideworld. sometimes i could not image how people ‘s life in north korea .now i am sure i already know.
Anonymous

Hey folks, writing from Shenzhen, China. TO the horror of expats on more worldly Chinese alike, yesterday afternoon began the complete outage of Google services (though for a long time now, Google search has been increasingly frustrating to use- searches for pictures of any kind tend to cause your browser to seize). As of 1:30 pm the next day, I can still open the pages…though I hear sporadic accounts of success elsewhere.
Anonymous

In Beijing, can’t check g-mail or anything else.

Thank heavens for Tor.
Anonymous

As long as China and the MAFIAA are playing Red Rover, the rest of us get free media with impunity…
Anonymous

power was out this morning and when I got back on Google was inaccessible, you tube has been down since mid-april.

Youo learn to get around either way.
KanedaJones

being late to this post I got to read all of the various comments pointing out how different ISPs are having different down times on their access to certain pages. the differences make it seem like instead of being at a high level up the internet chain it is actualy at at the individual isp level that software is CURRENTLY being installed, and the ISPs are finishing the work with variable down time.

seems like green dam is here earlier than thought?
KanedaJones

ok I didnt mean green dam specificly.. prob the interface that rats out machines or some other receptive component.
Anonymous

Doesn’t seem to be a universal block. From my own experience and some friends, Google stuff is up for most, but not all ISPs in Beijing. Schools seem to have it blocked, however. Dalian also seems to have access to Google, as well. Or at least my friends do.
Anonymous

we don’t have any problem with google.cn here in HuNan,but the English version remains inaccessible,so do other language versions.
Anonymous

>If they want to live without google, let them. They’ll be shooting their own foot if they do though.

Most internet users in China use Baidu not Google. The disruption was more of a nuisance for the expat community here.
Stef

A friend who’s on holiday in China encountered this yesterday so I mirrored a copy of Vidalia (Tor + Pivoxy) for her to download. Can anyone confirm that Tor works in China or are the nodes all monitored and blocked?
Axx

Ah, the Chinese government…

whatever their reasons for wanting to control everybody and everything, I look forward to AP photos accompanying the headline: “Chinese Government to Herd World’s Cats”
Takuan

just figure out what web applications organized crime in China needs and uses and throughly imbed them in whatever you want kept open.
Anonymous

I’m in Beijing now and can use Gmail and the Google search engine. Yesterday I couldn’t access my gmail for a few hours, but random outages like that are pretty common here.
Sleeper

[i]“Last week, the government ordered the US company to halt foreign website searches as a punishment.” [/i]

I’m confused, how does the Chinese goverment get any say in what an American company does? Or have I misread this somehow?
DWittSF

Are you sure this isn’t just to promote Bing?
Xeni Jardin

No, but this is!

Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing!

Thank you.
Marchhare

As long as Google doesn’t hand over dissidents. I still won’t use Yahoo for that reason. Bastards.
Trnck

Frogs in the boiling pot… Is it the people or the government?

We’ll see…
Anonymous

If they want to live without google, let them. They’ll be shooting their own foot if they do though.
toehk

Google, Gmail and other Google services (except google.cn) still blocked in Wuhan, Hubei province.
Anonymous

Gee, I wonder how long before China disconnects from the Internet completely. All of that nasty, nasty stuff on it.

Of course I wonder how this will affect all of the out-sourced workers where access to the Internet is essential. Out-sourcing your hi-tech work to a country with attitudes like this is a very risky business.
Nelson.C

And so Google discovers the price for co-operating with a totalitarian regime.
Anonymous

A country that has nothing to hide from it’s people should have no reason to keep it’s people from seeing the words and opinions of the rest of the world community .
j9c

ot

Xeni @5: Looks like Boing Boing could still hedge its bets and grab bingbing.net (squatted but “available”)! Unfortunately, looks like bongbong.net has been purchased by the Koreans. Hmm, dunno about bingbong.net though…

And btw thank you for all you do to shine a light in the dark places in China and Tibet etc.

/ot

What concerns me is how any ham-fisted gummint wanting to control its populace simply blocks Twitter, Google, SMS, cellphone service in general or even electrical grid, ripping a major hole The Network so many depend on. How to “route around the damage” of even an imperfect hatchet job like that? What communication tools does opposition have left when Those in Charge pull the power plug, tap or maybe cut landlines, and shut down the cell towers? Goodbye flashmobs?