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Google Disappears In China
An anonymous reader submits: "The censorship in China was finally getting better since people were 'allowed' to read the CNN news now (except for certain articles). But since this weekend it seems that a new web page has been censored in China. Since this weekend it looks like everyone in China is not 'allowed' to use google.com anymore. google.com was also gaining populairity in China as the better search engine (which also works fine in Chinese). But now I guess it got too popular and thus not allowed. Or does it have anything to do with Yahoo signing the agreement to censor?" Comments to yesterday's post "Real-Time Testing of China's Internet Filters" also noted that Google has gone missing within China.
That's what some people think anyway. Seems they've heavily de-emphasized Google in their searches, and in the past, they've used holiday weekends for similar switchovers. Time will tell...
Maybe google labs can whip up a quick p2p client that will allow people to use google in places where it is blocked.
Using the Google API, someone else could setup a Google gateway/proxy sort of thing. It could do searches, and even retrieve cached information on pages. And, the thing is, China would never know where one of these API gateways would pop-up. Only limiting factor would be the 1000 queries per day. I bet a billion Chinese can go through those in no time!
Why doesn't Google set up a bunch of servers operating within China, behind Chinese firewalls, so that Google cannot index or cache pages the government doesn't approve of?
They could call it google.cn...
Has China banned The Way Back Machine yet?
ender-iii
I wonder who will ultimately win?
Or better make it this way - for how long peer connections will be possible?
Yam is accessible, and so is Yahoo.
Too bad China overlooked Google proxies...they exist you know.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
The Real-Time Testing of Internet Filters in China is reporting conflicting results.
In the recent results box:
http://www.google.com - Reported as inaccessible in China
http://www.google.com - Reported as accessible in China
Tests were completed within a few minutes of each other (I know because I did them both).
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Basicly, if the media wants, they can brainwash majority of people in believing anything they want.
In the case of censorship, you know atleast, that you don't have access to unbiased information - and you know that if you want to create an unbiased opinion, you need to do it yourself.
But, as we have free speech, it is easy to leave thinking to the media, and let someone else form your opinion. So, to some extent, I think that the fact that media is controlled by tiny interest groups, is maybe even a bigger threat than censorship.
Ah, now I finally understand why there are so many open proxies in China and why I get so much spam through them!
Interesting. If they're indeed left open for that reason, I'd almost change my opinion of the admins running them...
All generalizations are false, including this one. (Mark Twain)
I am helping a friend in China get set up to use Peekabooty.
The way it works is basically that lots of people outside the firewall run proxy servers. People inside the firewall need to get Peekabooty's IP address list, and then they select a proxy to use. You can get the host.lst file from http://pabdb.cjb.net/.
Their web browsing is private because the connection to the proxy uses SSL encryption. The chinese will think you're shopping online. If they try to block the SSL port, then China will be unable to participate fully in the world economic system, increasingly so in the next few years.
The problem is that if Peekabooty's website isn't already blocked, it certainly will be soon. To avoid stimulating the interest of the authorities, I am making arrangements for my friend and I to have an encrypted conversation where I will tell him what he needs to do.
The peekabooty proxy runs on windows, but there is a linux port in progress. The people inside the firewall don't need to install any software, only configure their browser to use one of the SSL proxies.
It would be helpful for people to mirror Peekabooty's documentation and the IP address list. Likely many of the mirrors won't be blocked and so the chinese (and the Singaporeans, and residents of many Muslim countries) can access the information.
If you personally know anyone inside a firewalled country, do your part by helping them learn to use peekabooty. But find a way to arrange to tell them how while using encryption.
Unfortunately, PGP messages are pretty obvious that they're encrypted. If someone starts sending and receiving them, the authorities might take notice even of that.
But most web browsers nowadays support 128-bit SSL encryption. Thus it is possible to arrange to have a conversation with someone via SSL encrypted form submission.
There doesn't appear to be a way right now to do this, but it is being worked on.
In the meantime, mirroring the peekabooty instructions and proxy list and making the URL's available where the Chinese might pick them up will help get things started.
Strangely enough, while Amnesty International is blocked, Amnesty's Australian site isn't.
No I think China is far more worried about 'tibet' or web searches for tibet and etc.
I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
Does the US currently have any plans for a "regime shift" over there?
No - China, unlike Iraq, has already developed nuclear weapons.
Without guns you have NO way of overthrowing an oppressive regime.
India's independance, Yugoslavia's revolution, Soviet Perestroika, fall of the berlin wall. Must I go on?
Wielding a gun will only give them an excuse to masacre you. Do you think you can overpower any modern day army with a bunch of mercenaries and guns? Can you give me an example of a succesful armed revolution in the last 50 years?
It seems to me that modern day revolutions are fought without guns. Armed conflict tends to end up in a stalemate of massive bloodshed (Ruanda). How much firepower would it require for you to take down the US government?
My other OS is the MCP!