net nanny Posts

Jan192010

Posted By
Glen

Fact or Fiction II: Electric Googaloo!

Welcome back to Fact or Fiction. In case you missed it last time, it is an (ir)regular feature here on Lost Laowai. Every edition I will have a guest and we will discuss a few of the big issues in China of the day. Every answer will have a “Fact” or a “Fiction” and some justification to go along with it.

Today, like much of the blogosphere we will be talking about the Google vs. GFW debate. Which makes my guest, Steven, the perfect counterpart. The current resident of Suzhou, writes here at Lost Laowai and most of his posts have a technological theme. He is also the sole China blogger for CNET Asia with his blog Sinobytes.

So without further ado, let’s get down to Fact or Fiction 2: Electric Googaloo!!!

Google threatens to pull plug on Google.cn

Well-wishers leave flowers at Google China HQ earlier today

Google has announced that it might soon pull the plug on its operations in China, citing grave concerns over some recent, bizarre hack attacks, and lack of freedom of speech.

The official notice on the main Google blog reveals that a concerted hacking attack, which originated in China, has been using phishing and malware to access the accounts of human rights activists.

In the statement, the Chief Legal Officer of Google, David Drummond, detailed the attacks in full. It was not stated explicitly, but I read in the implication that these concerted attempts to get into the Gmail inboxes and Google accounts of these human rights activists was actually government sponsored.

In addition, Mr. Drummond called-out “the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web” in China, but did not name any sites in particular, not even mentioning its own sites which are blocked

YouTube Blocked Ahead of Tibetan Anniversary

It seems some time since I’ve blogged about a major site being blocked in China, but with the National People’s Congress in full-swing and the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising less than a week away – it appears the Net Nanny has quashed access to the world’s largest video sharing site, YouTube. Rick Martin, [...]