Now anyone can have the frustration of the Great Firewall of China in the comfort of his own home, thanks to the China Channel Firefox Add-on:
The Firefox add-on China Channel offers internet users outside of China the ability to surf the web as if they were inside mainland China. Take an unforgetable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (supported by western companies). It’s open source, free and easy.
Via TechCrunch.
So. since they have been able to recreate the GFW.. any chance they have the key to the front door of the real one?
R
October 27th, 2008 at 11:42 pmWhat I’m wondering is… will Chinese websites (especially videos from Tudou etc) load faster once I use this add-on since it looks like all it does is use a Chinese proxy?
October 27th, 2008 at 11:57 pmWow! Somebody actually spent some the few precious moments that we each have on planet earth making a virtual censorship tool??!! I presume that it emulates the GFW in real time.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:27 amha, reverse engineer it! :-) or run it backwards!
October 28th, 2008 at 12:56 amI think this is meant to be used for people wanting to download stuff from Baidu but can’t because they’re outside of China. Can anyone confirm?
October 28th, 2008 at 3:48 amThis is actually really cool. For instance you can download the latest songs from Baidu, which are allowed in China, but blocked in the outside!
October 28th, 2008 at 4:04 amInstead of Baidu just use Sogo!
October 28th, 2008 at 4:11 amThe Chinese connection is very slow, but Baidu works!
October 28th, 2008 at 8:12 amAfter downloading it yesterday, a few additional remarks:
~You can, indeed, download from Baidu. I have tried, but I’m not sure how much use I’ll get out of that.
~You can also go onto Wikipedia and a bunch of other sites that are blocked in China while using the Proxy. I even managed to go onto the “Tibetan Independence” page with the proxy engaged. I really wasn’t expecting that. So, it doesn’t really simulate the Great Firewall of China.
~I, for one, seem unable to post comments here while on the “China Channel.” I get sent back to the page without the comment being posted. So, I have to turn off the Proxy to comment.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:24 amhobielover, wikipedia seems to be working fine now most of the time, as long as I’m not looking for ‘controversial’ subjects.
On a related note, the Australian govt is now going the China route by developing filters that are supposed to stop people from seeing anything they think people shouldn’t be…originally the idea was that it would stop child porn, but the minister now responsible is saying other things such as anorexia and drug sites will be blocked. It seems our new govt wants to get voted out at the next election with this piece of fascist legisaltion.
October 29th, 2008 at 10:41 am@ hobielover
Wikipedia isn’t blocked in China, nor is the tibet independence movement wikipedia page (at least, not in English). I’m currently in China, no proxy or anything, just regular old internet, and I use wikipedia all the time…
October 29th, 2008 at 11:33 amWhen did Wikipedia start working again, then? It doesn’t seem that I go to any sites that are blocked, then, which I wasn’t expecting. The way people in the US talk about the Great Firewall made me think that there was more to it. I knew the sites about Chinese music I look at aren’t blocked, but I didn’t expect certain other sites to not be blocked, either. I thought that YouTube was not working right now in China, but I could use that, and I had also been told that Photobucket wasn’t working in China, but I also went there. What exactly is blocked, then?
October 30th, 2008 at 12:37 amNo need for Australians to get the plugin because our government is in the final stages of a “great firewall” of their own. The initial plan was to have an opt-out ability for all consumers, which changed to a multi-layered system where only parts could be opted out from. Now though it seems the plan is to be pretty much identical to China, with the Australian govt steering the boat on what is allowed and is not allowed.
I don’t mind the filtration of terrorism, child porn, and illegal sites in general.. That makes sense.. But they are talking about filtering sites that “might” offend or go against what the government deems as socially acceptable.
From a govt with completely outlandish views and slow uptake on what the peoplereally want, when it comes to technology and the internet… the effects of this could be disastrous and not just at a national level. I can really see a big potential for this to go pear shaped very quickly… but may be it will spawn a new social revolution, which might actually be a good thing. Only time will tell of course but for the moment it looks pretty grim..
October 30th, 2008 at 5:08 am@ hobielover
in all honesty, the only things I’ve found blocked are the Students for a Free Tibet site (makes sense) and icanhascheezburger.com (does NOT make sense).
October 31st, 2008 at 5:18 pmThis is CUTE! Now we know Communism will finally come to the world…
November 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pmkastner Says:
This is CUTE! Now we know Communism will finally come to the world…
Wow. Good that you realized that. FINALLY.
BTW. your words only indicates that you are pretty ideological, consciously or unconsciously. Being ideological means you are brainwashed as well. There’s been nothing wrong with Communism itself. Read more please.
November 6th, 2008 at 6:34 pmyeah communism is great fior some countries it would seem.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:35 am