Blogging Blocked in Beijing
JohnBTaylor@Stanford.Edu (John B. Taylor)
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:41:00 GMT
One of the things I like most about blogging is that I can post from anywhere in the world—Tokyo, Milan, Washington—not just from my home or office at Stanford.
Well not exactly. This past week I could not post from Beijing where I was visiting. I normally use Google’s Blogger platform to post blogs, but when I attempted to post from Beijing I could not get on Blogger. I soon found that I could not even get on my blog, nor on Greg Mankiw’s blog, nor any Blogspot blog.When I asked some students what the problem was, they told me that all Google platforms were blocked in China, and so were Facebook and Twitter platforms. As I later discovered in this Wall Street Journal article, the blockage is evidently part of an effort to prevent Internet traffic related to the so called “Jasmine Revolution.”
So I had to wait until I returned to Stanford to start blogging again, as I did yesterday. But it’s sad to know that students in China who might be interested can’t read, for example, about how the U.S. and the Chinese stimulus packages differed, or about many more important things.
Blogging Blocked in Beijing
JohnBTaylor@Stanford.Edu (John B. Taylor)
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:41:00 GMT
Brucetheeconomist's Blog 
Getting around the Great Fire Wall (#gfw) of China is easy if you know how. Why didn’t you just get a VPN before your trip like everyone else?
For your next trip to China I recommend Freedur VPN, http://www.freedur.net
Kind regards,
Alex
http://www.alexhofford.com
Maybe I need to make the info that it is reposting of a piece from John Taylor, not me. Thank you though.
I have a colleague who has started to blog from Beijing — her most recent post was on Friday: http://beijing2011beck.com/
She uses wordpress, not google.
It’s worth noting though – when discussing social media vs. revolutions and political impact.. that “global” brands of western networks are indeed to some degree constricted by geography. The new tools, as neutral things, could easily promote the agenda of supressive leaders – even as youth share and communicate on their devices. Under tacit supervision.