The distinct 2.0ness with which an unprecedented environmental protest was carried out last week in southern China's seaside Xiamen city seems to have resulted, as of June 7, in the service of two websites key to the exclusive blog coverage of the event being disrupted: Bullog.cn, where live updates from the streets of Xiamen were being posted, and Flickr, where searches for keywords like ‘antipx' and ‘xiamen' bring back hundreds of images from the demonstration and later clashes with police and soldiers.
Lian Yue, columnist for Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily and Bullog blogger had his personal blog blocked in early May, at the peak of many articles he wrote on the planned Px chemical plant.
Asks prominent bridge blogger and Fujian native Yee:
“Any reasons of baning this excellent photos share websites? So many! Especially in this June, like Xiamen people's march against PX project happened on 1st June and someone did a live report of the whole process on flickr.”
Buchong, one of the few bloggers who brought the Chinese blogsphere the Xiamen protest updates, at just before midnight Beijing time on June 7 writes on his Fanfou—a Chinese version of Twitter—of speculation that Bullog's having been blocked might not have been an official move:
【内幕】牛博遭到攻击，疑似方粉所为。罗方的粉丝都将拥戴对象的缺点全面继承、发扬光大了，且都有不理性的行为。这种事情发生在科学发展观的旗帜之下，真是莫大的讽刺。
A look at ex-Bullog blogger He Caitou's personal blog shows a post today, via a far more detailed version at the highly-read wikipedian Shi Zhao's blog, telling readers how to get past the Flickr block:
根据经验，只要哥哥你耐心地等待哟，心上的人儿就会到来哟！这一次，是《半亩塘闲话》shizhao达人。他不单给出了让你自己看的办法，还给出了让别人看的办法。请访问：
《显示flickr图片的临时解决方法》
Tips：对于很菜的菜鸟
在XP系统中，Hosts文件的位置一般是在：C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
修改的时候，选择记事本或者写字板打开这个文件，你将看到：
127.0.0.1 localhost
然后请在下面加两行，加好以后应该是这样的：
127.0.0.1 localhost
farm1.static.flickr.com 68.142.232.116
farm2.static.flickr.com 69.147.90.156
In the Windows XP system, the Hosts file is usually located at: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
While you're making changes, open the file [Hosts] in either Notepad or Wordpad and you will see:
127.0.0.1 localhost
Then below that add these two lines so that in the end it looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost
farm1.static.flickr.com 68.142.232.116
farm2.static.flickr.com 69.147.90.156
Then save, presumably.
On top of Bullog being gone for the moment and Flickr photos showing up empty boxes, service was temporarily disrupted on June 7 at several English-language China-based blogs hosted by DreamHost—Bokane, Sinosplice and the China Blog List—as well as expat blog Sinocidal having seemingly been blocked the same day.
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Instead of the “another brick” in the Great Wall, I prefer “crack” in the seawall analogy.
for sure, the authorities are “cracking down” and heads are rolling, but holding back the inexorable tide of the information age is like that li’l ol Dutch boy (hence the cracking wall.).
Yes, this may sound naive at the moment, but for those of us who remember Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the economic and “human interest” changes with China are stunning.. Several hundred million middle class people increasingly more engaged in/on the world market, traveling, et al, will not be able to be “held back” in the long run…
As General Patton said, “fixed fortifications are a monument to man’s stupidity.” Thus it will be with Chinese firewalls, bit by bit (yes with some setbacks)as China modernizes, seeks, questions, stirs the pot… we might as well get used to it.
I salute the bloggers, protestors, et al.. they will see their vision upheld, even if its a bit different than what we Yanks, Europeans, or other democratical/industrial countries aspire to.
[...] Flickr filtered China blocks photos from Xiamen protest [...]
[...] Kennedy of Global Voices links the Net Nanny’s latest temper tantrum to recent protests in Xiamen, where photos of the [...]
[...] For more on the Flickr filtering, see John Kennedy’s post at Global Voices: Flickr filtered. [...]
Anyone else try the Flickr unfilter Host approach? I gave it a go but it only seems to work for less than half the photos, I guess(!) the reason being that Flickr has 5-6 “farms” or so and this only puts in the first two. Shi Zhao has more methods listed and I’ll give them a try or translate them if anyone wants.
[...] Konrad Lischka. Quelle: Spiegel Online. Vgl. Eintrag in Global [...]
[...] For Flickr users in China By Richard Barton Flickr is filtered in China:China: Flickr filtered [...]
[...] Global Voices John Kennedy reported earlier , the reason of banning Flickr may be the photo-report of the Xiamen protest that made its way to [...]
[...] get any developments”, said Flickr CEO Stewart Butterfield on the help forum. As Global Voices John Kennedy reported earlier, the reason of banning Flickr may be the photo-report of the Xiamen protest that made its way to [...]
[...] they DO these things? How many guys do they have working on this enormous censoring system? Other blogs links this to recent enviromental protests against the building of a big chemical plant. Some of the [...]
I’m so sick and tired of not being able to have access to either wikipedia or other websites. I’m a westerner who lives in China, many times i find “page cannot be displayed” when from other countries I can. NOT EVEN YAHOO PROFILES are viewable. Can’t they just unallow those pages to chinese residents if they really must?
It’s redicolus I wasted time to take pictures and post them on flickr and a week later I find them gone.
When they will start to pay for my internet connection then I will not view what they dont want me to. But till I’ll pay for MY connection, in one way or the other I’ll find the way to view whatever page I want. And there are ways.
[...] (via) [...]
[...] steadily been in the process of becoming king “Tokebi” in Korea and has been a hand to censoring flickr in China as [...]
[...] CNN, Reuters? Anyone there? It is much more likely this was to do with the Xiamen PX protest. 6/4 photos have been up on Flickr for years and the image servers weren’t completely [...]
Now it’s September and we’re still blocked here in Beijing. China just wants your money and for you to keep your opinions (and your pictures) to yourself.
Hey Jimbob
The Flickr add-on for Firefox still works for me here in Guangzhou, but you could always try using some Picasa space.
Would love see your photos if you get that worked out and…where’s your blog?
I just wonder how long they can do this kind of crap and continue to ‘develop’.
Good point,and it’s so sudden and volatile and debilitating that many people are just left speechless; the effects are devastating, but so compounded now to be nearly invisible to the average netizen, or non-Chinese sympathizer.
And it’s almost like war with this: ideology drones vs. the humans and their thought machines. Hopefully the exodus to overseas hosts (with Tor and WordPress) idea takes, that would be really exciting and encouraging to see.
[...] seems to be hanging on a connection today. Facebook.com is unblocked. Chinese users responded to a flickr block with annoyance and proceeded to route past it. Twitter remains unblocked. And nothing has ever [...]