Google services again facing outages in China after brief restoration this morning

Earlier today, access to Google’s variety of web services was finally restored in China, after weeks of them being offline. This evening, however, Reuters reports that once again, the Mountain View company’s services are being disrupted in China. This includes tools such as Google Search, Maps, Gmail, advertising services, and more.

When service was restored this morning, neither Google nor China’s government commented on the restoration, signaling that it was not intended to be permanent. China maintains strong control over the internet, blocking any services that show any sort of hatred or disrespect towards the Communist Party’s leadership.

Google Inc services were once again being disrupted in China on Friday after a brief respite on Thursday, users and an anti-censorship group reported, continuing more than a month of severe disruption. Features such as Google’s search, maps, online advertising services and e-mail client have been rendered almost inaccessible for users in China.The Google disruption began in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the government’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

China’s GreatFire.org organization first noticed that Google services had once again been disrupted. Great Fire is a China-based anti-censorship group. The group believes that the initial restoration this morning was merely a glitch in the “Great Firewall.” China’s “Great Firewall” is the tool that the Communist Party uses to block whatever websites it deems disrespectful.

A variety of other services have faced interruptions in China recently as well, inclining Flickr, OneDrive, and a variety of South Korean sites. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been blocked in China for years.

Google declined to comment.