Reader Tom reports that when he was in China recently he was not able to access this blog, or the affiliated Facebook and YouTube pages..
Other blogs worked fine, including other conservative blogs.
Calling out to the People of China to try to access this blog and report the results in the comments if you can get through, or if not, send me an e-mail.
(P.S., I can’t wait for the phone call.)
Update: A reader in China e-mails that the Great Firewall blocks all “blogspot.com” addresses; as others note in the comments, there are ways around that.
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Comments
Interesting … I've experienced the same thing at work. I can access any other conservative blog on my office computer except Legal Insurrection.
Can we see your long-form blog certificate?
I can see how "insurrection" would trip a keyword based filter.
"Calling out to the People of China to try to access this blog and report the results in the comments if you can get through, or if not, send me an e-mail."
If they can't read the blog, how are they going to know you're calling out to them?
The Chinese must know your blog teaches, informs, and gently nudges people with Constitutional truth. Constitutional truth is dangerous information; red flags must have been going up all over the place. Ban! Must Ban!
Or maybe your blog ban is part of the Google-China agreement…..
From your "phone call" link to your "Scaring my in-laws" post:
"Late last night we received a phone call from my 87-year old father-in-law, in an obviously agitated state. Our first thoughts upon hearing his voice were that someone had taken ill.
But it was something else that was keeping him up worrying:
"Mother tells me that the White House is trying to shut down Bill's blog."
We assured him that it was not so, and told him not to worry, that the White House was not trying to shut down Legal Insurrection, but Obama was trying to take away his Medicare and send him to see the death panel."
That is too funny and too cute! A good morning chuckle was had.
It will be very hit and miss. Some people in China will be able to access you fine, because they're on VPNs (and often don't know it). Others may find your site blocked in some cities, or from some IP addresses, but not others. Here in Hong Kong, you're 100% kosher because HK is outside the Great Firewall.
I'd have to agree with Ben. Insurrection is a scary word to the communist party in China. Good thing I didn't name my blog Tienanmen-something.
Then again, how big is the potential market for conservative American blogs in China? Are you really missing out on that many readers? Or is it about teaching them about the virtues of capitalism? That may not be necessary any more.
胡锦涛主席…拆掉这防火墙 !!!
Professor – I am living in China currently and can only access your blog when I use a VPN (virtual private network – that's how most folks here get around the Great China Firewall). The Firewall blocks all websites from "blogspot.com" including yours and Ann Althouse's blog. I don't know why the Party decided that blogs from blogspot.com were particularly dangerous to the Party's monopoly on power (which is the key criterion).
If China's agin, I'm for it!
A measure of a man (or blog) is the caliber of his (it's) enemies.