China

Why the China Blog is Now Blocked in China

By Austin Ramzy | @austinramzy | November 26, 2008 | +

One of the unexpected consequences of the great time.com blog blowup of 2008 is that the China Blog is no longer easily accessible in China. Regular time.com blog readers will recall that in late October our servers experienced some sort of meltdown. In order to correct things in a hurry before the presidential election, our Web overseers slaved heroically to move our blogs to WordPress. Hurray, blogs saved!

But there were some consequences. Commenters were forced to re-register, our archives have disappeared and most painfully to us here in China, our blog is blocked. The China Blog and time.com are occasionally blocked on the mainland when we write something that upsets the authorities or China’s web censorship czars are in clampdown mode during a politically sensitive period. The problem now is that all WordPress blogs are blocked on the mainland. That sort of wholesale restriction has happened to other blog host sites, and seems to be related to the fear of Chinese bloggers writing whatever they want on blogs that are hosted overseas.

Our tech wizards are working on some sort of fix so that the China Blog will once again be available in China without a workaround. Until then we can only look back wistfully at the days when a single post would generate a debate with 100+ comments. But I now see why the authorities like censorship. With our blog blocked in China, there are far fewer commenters who log in and label us idiots. Censorship, it seems, has confirmed our brilliance.

Related Topics: China

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  • eecavazos

    Mr. Ramzy,
    So that’s why the comments section is so bare! I am sure Mr. JohnSmith must be quite bored.

  • jumbocn

    haha, good for knock down this blog. all these is just biased report to make some comment to as their business grow.nothing to do with China.

  • doris333

    Well it also shows that people in China are writing. Their blogs represent what the CHINESE PEOPLE feel and not journalists who wish to impose a Western ideaS on Chinese feelings.

  • john2008obama

    As I see, this whole things which purged and harmonized the whole blog, seems staged by a typical way of C*A. It seems at this sensitive moment, some guys need to lay low. I guess it’s also for the sake of some Chinese commenters. Or, maybe the Honest John here hacked the blog to confirmed his brilliance? LoL.

    Hey, JohnSmith, to be honest, I really hope you could have your own blog, then we would comment on your poster.

    In the following months, there gotta be some blockbusters in this blog. What a shame we can’t hear the voice of China.

  • jumbocn

    To doris333

    Are you sure is “not journalists who wish to impose a Western ideaS on Chinese feelings”.

    how about you country’s people. pls take care your family business 1st, why you want to get business body. are you sure your country perfect. i think it is worse then any one.

  • johnsmith9876

    Don’t lie. China never blocks any information. China has the best freedom of information for Chinese !!

    China is, of course, perfect, with Chinese characteristics. China never do anything wrong in the eyes of Chinese.

  • 8o0o0o8

    i believe another reason y there is so little comments now is because e olympics is over

  • http://blogstuffnow.com/zero-comments-blogging-and-critical-internet-culture/ Zero Comments Blogging and Critical Internet Culture | blogstuffnow.com

    [...] Why the China Blog is Now Blocked in China [...]

  • http://china.blogs.time.com/2009/03/23/unblocked/ Unblocked :: The China Blog – TIME.com

    [...] This As some of our commenters have noted, the China Blog is now unblocked in China. We were censored last fall after the Great Time Blog Migration to WordPress. It looks like the mainland’s block on blogs [...]

  • conscienceinchina

    John, I had ever mistaken you due to your ironic and humorous words, sorry! Now look back your wonderful comments here, It’s really funny!

  • http://blogchina.me/?p=15 Unblocked « BLOGCHINA.ME

    [...] some of our commenters have noted, the China Blog is now unblocked in China. We were censored last fall after the Great Time Blog Migration to WordPress. It looks like the mainland’s block on blogs [...]

  • codonyer

    You can find a solution using the Malasya’s server

    Sergi Codonyer

  • jordancfan

    Why the China Blog is Now Blocked in China?

    This TIME Magazine China Blog was mostly was controlled by Black American who hate Chinese. In fact the CEO of TIME/Warner Corp. was a Blackman. So China has no choice but to Block the China Blog because it is Black.

    If the African Americans want China to permit American Blogs in China, they have to first change their attitude towards the Chinese people.

    By: Jordan C. Fan, Prophetof Environment.

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