Reddit blocked in China, as country’s ‘Great Firewall’ gets ever wider
Most major American services are now unavailable in the country
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Reddit seems to have been blocked in China, in yet another widening of the country’s “Great Firewall”.
The social news site joins most other major American web services — including Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — in being blocked from inside the country. Sites including Reddit may be accessible through virtual private networks (VPNs), but China has been cracking down on those too.
The website Blocked In China shows the site as unavailable from computers in all of the regions that are tested: Beijing, Shenzhen, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang Province and Yunnan Province.
On Reddit itself, some users were still able to access the site. The blocks are done in such a way that they can show initially only in some areas — but sometimes sites are blocked and then made available again without notice.
China has been gradually blocking more and more sites as part of what it calls the “Golden Shield Project”. The country says that the blocks are intended to keep dangerous content out of the country — and the block tend to cover sites that people use to talk about topics that the country doesn’t want discussed, or places that are used to share content that authorities deem obscene.
The Great Firewall appears to be getting more and more complex, in addition to its increased reach. Earlier this year, for instance, it emerged that the country had turned the great firewall into a weapon — using it to take internet traffic and redirect it towards specific websites, in what has been described as the “Great Cannon”.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments