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There were a few comments on my entry regarding my site being blocked in China. I figured the whole issue deserved a blog entry, especially since controlled free-speech isn’t something we can all relate to very well. I’ll begin with the cut and dry of the situation but also direct you to my own personal knowledge and some interesting articles.
Now to the questions posed specifically about my site and why it might be banned. There are a few possible reasons:
1) My content has been read randomly by government moderators and has been blocked because of content.
2) Automatic filters picked out specific keyword combinations from my entries and deemed the content inappropriate.
3) My blog runs on a WordPress.org platform. This is important because I know that all WordPress.com hosted blogs are blocked.
[Note] My chances of “detection” on any of those three counts was increased by the fact that my site is a blog. Blogs, forums, and other discussion formats can be closely watched and quickly banned or event destroyed if hosted in China. Subversive or dynamic sharing of information is the most threatening. Even texting has proved a recent challenge to the Chinese government as it as been used to suddenly form public protest through instant coordination (but don’t worry, they are working on systems to monitor that too).
So I could have been blocked for hosting a blog, using WordPress, or based on content.
I hope this answers any questions and brings up many more. Please read further, Continue reading »
