China blocks The Guardian’s website [Update: Now unblocked]

Update: Good news for the Guardian, its site is now unblocked – just under a day after China’s net nanny struck. [Hat tip Tech In Asia]

Our original post is below…

China appears to have dropped the censorship hammer on the Guardian, after the newspaper’s global website become inaccessible from mainland China. Many on Twitter reported an issue while Web monitoring site Greatfire shows it is indeed blocked, which is notable since China tends only to censor local Chinese language versions of media, rather than their English sites.

It seems that the Guardian @guardian has been blocked in China. pic.twitter.com/XhOvUX4PFQ

— edde (@Edourdoo) January 7, 2014

The ‘Great Firewall’ Internet censorship system sometimes blocks sites without explanation for temporary periods. However, when it comes to media, there are often deeper reasons. Bloomberg was blocked in China in June 2012 and the New York Times went dark in October — both had published investigative reports about high-ranking politicians.

In an article, The Guardian says the reasons for its blocking are “unclear.” China recently unblocked the Chinese versions of the WSJ and Reuters, so this move on the Guardian could be temporary.

➤ China blocks the Guardian, censorship-tracking website says [The Guardian]

Thumbnail image via Thinkstock