Friday, March 02, 2007



Banned in China

ScoopIt this morning had a link to a site which tests whether a site is blocked by the Great Firewall of China. Naturally, I had to try, and it seems that my evil liberal propaganda and talk about democracy and human rights is deemed a corrupting influence which the Chinese people must not be allowed to read.

I wonder if I can get a badge?

14 comments:

Well done!

I'm not banned. Perhaps a big banner with:
- Free Tibet!
- Independence for Taiwan
- Mao Tse-Tung wore girls underwear!
- Long live the Falun Gong
- Hu Jintao is a pigs willy!

might do the trick..

Posted by Rich : 3/02/2007 01:25:00 PM

I am politically correct.

What am I doing wrong?

Posted by Paul : 3/02/2007 02:04:00 PM

hmm, kiwiblog is acceptable...

Posted by Anonymous : 3/02/2007 02:14:00 PM

Ha ha - that's the first time I've heard anyone claim to be 'politically correct'. Usually those words are used to mean 'anything at all I don't like and don't really understand'...

What's even funnier is that Not PC is considered to be PC by the Chinese government!

Milou

Posted by Anonymous : 3/02/2007 02:18:00 PM

Why is that surprising? They *love* untrammelled capitalism!

Posted by Rich : 3/02/2007 02:53:00 PM

I put that story up - I should really have hat-tipped a certain other libertarian...
http://www.freespeech.org.nz/section14/2007/02/28/banned-in-china/

Posted by Lyndon : 3/02/2007 03:22:00 PM

Well, I checked out your URL, http://norightturn.blogspot.com/ and it said "Your URL is available." so WTF?

Posted by Richard : 3/02/2007 11:16:00 PM

Rich: well, it told me I was blocked this morning, and that I'm blocked right now, so who knows?

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 3/03/2007 12:51:00 AM

well, guess what? Thanks to people like you, Livejournal is now banned. for good.

You know, i am ALL for democracy and freedom, but i LIVE in China! I *chose* to live here and i would be *very* greatful if you guys can just leave china the bloody hell alone. At least on LJ. or at least until china figures out how to block specific LJ posts as apposed to "how to make icons" or scan your stamp collection because now EVERYTHING is banned. and frankly, i do NOT blame the chinese for it. I blame you. because china is VERY clear on its laws and what can be done in their country and what can't. (and hello, people, it *is* their country. it *has* been their country for 5000 years! and unlike the US which has been around for , what, 200? it will probably STAY their country for another 5000! so they *do* get to make the rules, and if they want the rules changed, believe me, the chinese people *will* change it. in their *own* time. they have before. Just LOOK at your history books.) frankly America is considerably less "free" right now than China EVER was. At least China doesn't pretend NOT to kidnap people in the name of national security and lock them away in god-only-knows what hole! and seriously, you should at least VISIT China before claiming to know what's what! If you want to scream democracy, great, go do it on another blog! but MUST you do it on the one and ONLY free weblog LEFT????? Now we have nothing left to use! most of us just want to stay in touch with our friends the inexpensive way. We don't give a rats ass for politics. (and trust me, after living through 3 civil wars, i CAN say that) despite what the American's want you to think, china isn't all bad! (at leas they don't give you the illusion of freedom here)and while we are at it, why don't we get the Chinese to start selling arms to the Hawaiians?? that is also FREEDOM.(as apposed to what America is trying to do. seriously people, isn't ONE illegal war enough for you??) Go fight your Iraqi war of oil and leave us the hell alone. (oh and keep telling yourselves that it is in self defense. soon the whole world would be out to get you in your paranoia)

STOP POSTING POLITICAL PROPAGANDA ON LIVEJOURNAL!!! WE WANT OUR ACCESS BACK!!!!

you are not helping. if you want to help, this is not the way.

Posted by Anonymous : 3/06/2007 12:02:00 AM

Anyone else think the last comment was posted by a paid-for Chinese government troll?

Apparently they hire thousands to provide "balance" in on-line discussions.

Posted by Anonymous : 3/06/2007 04:17:00 PM

I would say so. They appear to only paste in a standard 'rebuttal', aimed purely at Americans. Would have thought the Chinese govt could pay for more creative trolls

Posted by Anonymous : 3/06/2007 04:33:00 PM

Good point. Freedom is a US hot button point.

Also refers to live journal when post is made on blogger.

Giving that troll a C-

Posted by Anonymous : 3/06/2007 05:10:00 PM

Gah... I know I shouldn't respond to trolls, but this is too tempting...

"and hello, people, it *is* their country. it *has* been their country for 5000 years!"

Well, perhaps, if your government actually permitted your people to participate in the governance of your country, instead of ruling them from above with an iron fist, then one of the results (as well as freedom and democracy and all that decadent Western stuff you loathe so much) might be that you get your precious live journals back...

Posted by Anonymous : 3/06/2007 05:31:00 PM

And just to point out the obvious: China may have its own laws - but so do we. And I see no reason why we should engage in self-censorship simply to save the Chinese authorities the trouble of enforcing their restrictive, immoral laws limiting political expression.

Posted by Idiot/Savant : 3/06/2007 05:44:00 PM