Bill rightfully points out the ridiculous idea of "reverse censorship" reported by Tom Foremski.
In fact, different ISPs in the USA have been blocking Chinese users for many years. I wrote back in 2001 (not linkable) how the (now deceased) Excite@Home routinely blocked email from Shanghai and Beijing ISPs and also blocked incoming HTTP requests from a number of places in China (therefore not allowing users in China access to websites hosted by Excite@Home). We had email communication with Excite@Home's legal department up until they went bust, then the problem went away…
And GoDaddy.com now routinely blocks both email and HTTP requests from China, leaving many foreigners who live in China but host their websites with GoDaddy with frustrating connection issues.
I help represent Spamhaus in China and I routinely run across smaller ISPs in Europe and America who block Chinese users' access to their hosted sites. Much of this blocking is ad hoc and based on the individual sysadmin's "preferences". Often they will block all IPs registered via APNIC to Chinese companies, or they will block email based on any .cn domain name suffix in the email headers–anywhere in the headers, mind you, even if your message just took a single hop within China.
Again, it goes to show that the Internet is made of duct tape. There are few real standards to follow.
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Some China users are already blocked from US sites…
I recently wrote that web site owners and bloggers could choose to block China-based internet users–as a form of protest to government censorship. I found the following at http://www.chinatechnews.com/blog/posts/64 And GoDaddy.com now routinely blocks…
Trackback by Silicon Valley Watcher--Tom Foremski on the business and culture of innovation — February 6, 2006 @ 1:04 pm
The main problem (at least in Shanghai) is that most of Shanghai's DSL and Cable ip's have been used for Spam at one point or another. I provide mail service to users here, and its a regular issue - why can't I send mail to XXX.
If I crank up the spam filters, they can't even send to my server…
My solution is to run 2 servers in 2 countries, with 2 ports open. One port for clients to send mail to thats unfiltered, and another thats filtered to the hilt on port 25.
Then get the Shanghai server to forward all incoming authenticated mail to the USA for onward sending.
A complete hassle, but one thats forced on you by the likes of SPEWS and other lists that are nigh on impossible to be removed from if you live in China.
Now there's new China regulation for email servers - who knows what thats going to entail…
Sigh…
Lawrence / http://www.shanghaiguide.com
Comment by Lawrence Sheed — March 6, 2006 @ 8:56 am