China Said To Block Gmail Access

We all know about the Great Wall of China – and I am sure that tech savvy folks, too, would have heard about the Great Firewall of China. Well, when it comes to Internet censorship, you can be sure that China is no stranger to it. In fact, we have received word that China has blocked access to Gmail on an IP level for a whole lot of its citizens – where theoretically speaking, it could amount up to 1.3 billion, although most likely that is not the case.

This might seem to be “normal”, since many of Google’s other services, Gmail included, have seen access to them blocked off before on a nationwide level over in mainland China. Previously, however, censorship tended to target the likes of YouTube and Google’s search engine, which included periods that led to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th, 1989. However, this marks the very first time where Google’s Gmail service was blocked off in China all the way.

Several sources had already confirmed the block, including a fair number of Chinese citizens over on social media, alongside Internet analysis firm Dyn Research. As the Gmail service has been blocked on an IP level, there are ways to get around it – including accessing Gmail via a proxy or VPN.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: GMail, Google