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CHINA HAS TAKEN another step towards blocking Google services entirely after activity on its email service dropped significantly.
On Google’s own Transparency Report, which measures traffic patterns in real-time, it shows that Gmail traffic began falling on Christmas Day before dropping to almost zero at the end of 26 December.
The move means that Gmail users in the country have no means of accessing the service, unless they use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which would allow unrestricted access to sites and services.
[image alt="China gmail traffic" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/12/china-gmail-traffic-630x296.jpg" width="630" height="296" credit-url="http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Ftransparencyreport%2Ftraffic%2Fexplorer%2F%3Fr%3DCN%26l%3DGMAIL%26csd%3D1418634000000%26ced%3D1419843600000" credit-source="Google%20Transparency%20Report" caption="Gmail%20activity%20in%20China.%20Traffic%20began%20to%20fall%20on%20Chrismas%20day%20before%20dropping%20to%20almost%20zero%20by%2026%20December." class="alignnone" /end]
Although it originally blocked Google’s services back in June, users were still able to access Gmail via third-party email services such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, according to TechinAsia. The latest crackdown have removed this loophole with IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and POP (Post Office Protocol) servers now completely blocked.
China has had a tense relationship with Google as it tries to maintain control over the internet. The country is famed for its tight internet censorship controls, known as the ‘Great Firewall of China’.
Chinese authorities have blocked access to numerous Google products such as Search, Drive and Hangouts ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, which happened on 4 June, 1989.
Back in 2010, Google pulled out partially from China instead of allowing its search engine to be censored, after it said it found a cyberattack that targeted the accounts of human rights activists and intellectual property. The company started redirecting users visiting its Chinese site to its Hong Kong site instead.
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That’s socialism isn’t it. The single biggest oppressor of the working class on the planet and not a word out of Mikey D
China isn’t socialist.
Its just a plain old dictatorship.
Yup a plain old dictatorship without a dictator
They have also, in the past blocked my cat webcomic at times. Evil.
Cormac spot on ! You can now expect an avalanche of red thumbs from the lefty loonies & populist party trolls that dominate this site
Cormac, have you ever had an education? Socialism the single biggest oppressor of the working class? Yet, it’s the ideology which promotes unionisation and workers rights. Wow. You’re the first person I’ve ever heard to call China socialist. I’m guessing you don’t have a clue what socialism is?
It’s a single party socialist state governed by the Chinese communist party . And yes I have had the good fortune to be well educated .
Socialism is a term commonly used to win mass approval. The nazi party weren’t called national socialists because they were left-leaning. China is the exact same. A country of enormous human rights infractions is not socialist no matter how much it claims it is.
Jarlath, Ireland isn’t a real democracy either when international organisations (IMF, ECB, World Bank) tell your government what to do. And when the government make bad decisions, no one is accountable. Does that mean the Irish State should be associated with the Nazi party too?
The Chinese government reminds me of Fianna Fáil. Full of career politicians and secretive deals with friends and cronies.
Imagine being stuck with Fianna Fáil forever and not being able to vote them out. Thank goodness for democracy. We at least get one term break from then once in a while.
Maybe the Chinese know more about Google than we do …….
Maybe Google wouldn’t engage in a secret deal with China.
Ah come on now. I’m pretty sure we don’t have it as hard as a dictatorship in China.
Our dictatorship is slightly more nuanced alright – Fianna Fail or Fine Gael ?
Great Firewall of China….
Ya that’s in the article Tom!
China is no different to Ireland thd UK .. USA or any of the other developed countries…100 years ago…. it’s just that their system of brown envelopes is several thousand years more advanced than ours… now they control ALL aspects of life… ID cards for everyone of age..so they control the movement of people …and complete control of tv and radio..the Internet is under intense scrutiny…only those with a VPN can access blocked sites…if you are “in” with the PARTY then you are in the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” league… grace and favours of old….
A great bunch of lads
Ah here…..and I’ve to work
The Chinese were the first to experiment with paper money – the experiment lasted for 600 years and then they got rid of it as a bad idea – too many crooks affording a false value brought it down I think …
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