China Clamps Down Still Harder on Internet Access

Andrew Jacobs, reporting from Beijing for the NYT:

Jing Yuechen, the founder of an Internet start-up here in the Chinese capital, has no interest in overthrowing the Communist Party. But these days she finds herself cursing the nation’s smothering cyberpolice as she tries — and fails — to browse photo-sharing websites like Flickr and struggles to stay in touch with the Facebook friends she has made during trips to France, India and Singapore.

Gmail has become almost impossible to use here, and in recent weeks the authorities have gummed up Astrill, the software Ms. Jing and countless others depended on to circumvent the Internet restrictions that Western security analysts refer to as the Great Firewall.

I can’t help but wonder if this clampdown is related to the DNS shenanigans that Craig Hockenberry has been documenting.

★ Thursday, 29 January 2015