Chinese man sues telecoms provider over blocked Google access in rare challenge to 'Great Firewall'
Wang Long says China Unicom's inability to give him access to the search engine is a breach of responsibility
A Chinese man threw a rare official spotlight on the country’s internet controls when he sued a state-owned telecom operator for denying him access to US search engine Google, documents and reports showed on Friday.
Authorities in China impose strict limits on the internet, censoring domestic content and blocking foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube using a system known as the “Great Firewall”.
Google partially withdrew from mainland China in 2010 and moved its servers to Hong Kong after a fallout with the central government.
Access to its services has been blocked or disrupted since shortly before June’s 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Wang Long, who describes himself as a “law worker”, sued China Unicom over his lack of access to Google at the Futian People’s Court in Shenzhen.
The hearing took place on Thursday, a document on the city’s official litigation service website showed.
On his account on Weibo, Wang said that China Unicom’s lawyer hesitated to answer when the judge asked whether Google’s websites can normally be accessed.