In Shanghai with the Great Firewall

In Shanghai ahead of the Mobile World Congress event, and getting my usual education on who's inside and who's outside the Great Firewall of China (GFW).

The usual suspects – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – are permanently out of bounds. But in the new normal since 2014 sites such as scmp.com and even the Hong Kong government broadcaster RTHK have disappeared from view.

One surprise on this visit is the blocking of BBC World Service radio. The English language service has usually been available, though not the Chinese. The BBC English website is accessible, but not their video. The same goes for CNN.

The filtering is often (and presumably intentionally) erratic. When living in Beijing I'd find sites such as Yahoo would disappear for a few hours or a day or two and then return. This may be why Google.com.hk, Gmail and Google Translate are back online, though it's likely a more permanent change. Last year all Google services were restricted. Currently just Google Drive and YouTube are blocked.

The one positive about this sustained assault on knowledge diffusion is it provides a good cutomised test of which tools are the most valuable. In order I'd say Twitter, Wordpres and Google Drive.

This is an obviously unscientific and personal list. For comprehensive coverage of the GFW, visit Greatfire.org.

OUT

YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Drive, Blogger, scmp.com, RTHK News, nytimes.com, bloomberg.com, BBC World Service radio, Delicious, Wikipedia (Chinese), WordPress (any WordPress blog), WSJ.

IN

BBC News website (but not radio), CNN (but not video) Guardian, Google HK, Google Translate, Gmail