Gmail service shut down in China amid mounting pressure against Google
Gmail was completely blocked in China recently, suggesting that authorities may have plugged some gaps that previously allowed internet users limited access to Google’s e-mail service.
Gmail was completely blocked in China recently, suggesting that authorities may have plugged some gaps that previously allowed internet users limited access to Google’s e-mail service.
Anti-censorship advocate group GreatFire.org, blaming the country’s so-called Great Firewall, said large numbers of Gmail web addresses were cut off in China starting on Friday.
Many users said the service was still down on Monday, but others reported they had on-and-off access to their accounts.
Almost all of Google’s services have been heavily disrupted in China since June, but until last week Gmail users could still access emails downloaded via protocols like IMAP, SMTP and POP3. These had let people communicate using Gmail on apps like the Apple iPhone’s Mail and Microsoft Outlook.
Gmail’s setback could make e-mail communication difficult for companies operating in China which use Google’s Gmail for their corporate email system, said GreatFire.
“I think the government is just trying to further eliminate Google’s presence in China and even weaken its market overseas,” said a member of GreatFire.org, who uses a pseudonym.
“Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outside China might be forced to switch away from Gmail.”
Google’s own Transparency Report, which shows real-time traffic to Google services, displayed a sharp drop-off in traffic to Gmail from China on Friday.
“We’ve checked and there’s nothing wrong on our end,” a Singapore-based spokesman for Google said in an e-mail.
China maintains tight control over the internet, nipping in the bud any signs of dissent or challenges to the ruling Communist Party’s leadership.
The country is host to the world’s most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism, known as the Great Firewall of China. Critics say China has stepped up its disruption of foreign online services like Google over the past year.
The major Google disruption began in the run-up to the 25th anniversary this year of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
One popular way for companies and people to get around China’s internet censorship is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which allows unhindered access to blocked sites and services.
“It’s becoming harder and harder to connect and do work in China when services like Gmail are being blocked,” said Zach Smith, a Beijing-based digital products manager at magazine. “Using a VPN seems to be the only answer to doing anything these days online in China.”
With additional reporting from Adrian Wan
