The Chinese government’s ban on Google’s Blogger service has apparently been lifted after four years of unavailability. Chinese Netizens were able to regain access to the service as of last Thursday, according to CIO Magazine.
The last time Blogger was accessible without a proxy server was October 2005, which proved to be a temporary allowance by Beijing. The site was closed off again by December.
Google came under heavy criticism early this year after being the last major search engine company to succumb to Chinese pressure to censor search results in order to operate within the Communist country. Google reasoned that limited access was better than no access at all.
Blogs are immensely popular in China, as the citizens are given an outlet for discussions previously reserved for the dinner table, and not for public discourse. But Chinese watchdogs are vigilant in not only blocking unacceptable speech, but also jailing dissenters.
Yahoo! especially has been the target of protests for aiding the government locate journalists who leaked information to the international press or for publishing sensitive materials.
The aggressive censoring of content mentioning things like free speech, democracy, or even the Tiananmen Square massacre, has led to various movements around the Internet to help Chinese bloggers express themselves.
Last year, for example, activists encouraged others to “adopt a blogger” by hosting content provided by bloggers in countries where speech is regulated.
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