blocked

Four 'blocked' stories November 2012 - September 2014

DuckDuckGo is being blocked in China

Stephen Hall Sep 22 2014 - 8:52 am PT

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For reasons unknown, the anti-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo has been blocked in China. The CEO of DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, has taken to Twitter to confirm the block, also saying that it seems the site has been blocked for a few weeks.

https://twitter.com/yegg/status/513657799856115713

It appears that the site has actually been blocked for quite some time now, as can be seen on the Great Fire censorship monitoring website (via TheNextWeb). A search for DuckDuckGo reveals that blockages started appearing on September 4th. Since that day, it doesn’t appear the site has yet become accessible again.

We’ll update this post if and when we find out more.

Turkish government blocking YouTube in Turkey

Zac Hall Mar 27 2014 - 8:06 am PT

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via <a href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/statuses/449194998102118400" target="_blank">Twitter</a>

Following the block of Twitter in Turkey by the nation’s prime minister earlier this month, Turkey’s telecommunications authority is now taking steps to block YouTube in the nation, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The move came just hours after a leaked recording published on YouTube purporting to show a conversation where Turkey’s foreign minister, spy chief and a top general appear to discuss scenarios which could lead to a Turkish attack against Jihadist militants in Syria.

This comes just days after Turkey requested that Google remove videos from YouTube that criticize the Turkish government. Google responded by refusing to accommodate the government of Turkey’s request.

Yesterday, a Turkish court ruled that the ban against Twitter should be lifted within 30 days while many users were already using DNS workarounds to access the service.
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Turkey asks YouTube to remove videos accusing government of corruption, Google declines

Mike Beasley Mar 21 2014 - 10:21 pm PT

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The Turkish government sent requests to YouTube for the removal of specific videos that it deemed critical of government officials, according to the Wall Street Journal. Google refused to comply with the request, saying that there was no legal basis for the removal of the videos.

The move by the government comes after a nationwide blackout of Twitter, which officials say is due to what they deem false allegations of corruption being circulated on the network. That block can be worked around by using Google’s DNS server to access the web, though it seems that won’t be necessary to keep accessing YouTube videos critical of the nation’s leadership—unless the entire website is blocked, that is.

Some Google services reportedly blocked in China

Jordan Kahn Nov 9 2012 - 11:09 am PT

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[tweet https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/266973350025367553]

Many reports are coming in that Chinese users are having trouble accessing a number of Google’s web products. There is no word on the exact cause of the service disruptions, but The Wall Street Journal noted Google’s Transpareny Report website shows “a precipitous drop in traffic in China starting more than eight hours ago,” although the site doesn’t list the services as completely inaccessible in the country. Google provided a statement to WSJ confirming the interruptions do not appear to be on its end:

“We’ve checked and there’s nothing wrong on our end,” a Google spokeswoman said in a prepared statement.

The Washington Post reported “Users with special VPN (virtual private network) services,” which many Chinese users take advantage of to access banned sites like Facebook, are still able to access Google’s services.
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