Twitter, Flickr, Bing, etc. blocked in China

With the 20th Anniversary of June 4 approaching, netizens reported that a number of social networking and peer to peer communication websites have been blocked in China, including Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Youtube, Blogspot etc.

On Herdict, a censorship-tracking website, there are reports from all over China on the blocking of twitter since yesterday (June 2). Blogspot has been blocked since middle of May and Youtube has been on and off for a rather long period of time, Windows Live, Bing and Flickr have entered the blocking list at the eve of June 4 anniversary.

Hotmail was blocked temporary and its access has been restored in the past couple of hours. Twitter has enabled its https access in respond to netizens’ call. Moreover, some of the twitter extension tools such as twitterfox are still accessible.

crab-and-twitter

Meanwhile #fuckGFW has become a hottest search tag in twitter. Netizens are using the tag to express their anger, exchange information on tools for circumventing the GFW and give latest updates on the blocking.

Blogger tsw called June 2nd GFW Day, when netizens directly confronted with state violence in information control. Others are sharing information on how to get around with GFW.

Wodingdong recommended Virtual Private Network tool, Tor, Hotspot Shield Launch and OpenVPN GUI. Kenengba suggested to use third party connections to get access to twitter.

The blocking of twitter has been anticipated since blogspot has been blocked in Middle of May. Netizens’ major concern now is when will all these websites be accessible again?

(Cartoon created by twitter user junde via Rebecca MacKinnon)

Related articles:

Rebecca MacKinnon – China Blocks Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Hotmail, Windows Live, etc. Ahead of Tiananmen 20th Anniversary

Danwei – Twitter and other sites blocked in China as of today

Guardian – China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

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