Way to check if a site is blocked?

from China traffic

[leunga]

I would like to check if my US site is accessible from China. Other than asking China friends to check, is there any other possible way to do so given that I am outside China?

[bill]

The links I provided in this thread from last year are still valid: Domains Blocked by China [webmasterworld.com]

There is a very good research site about this topic entitled :Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China [cyber.law.harvard.edu]. This site details a lot of the reasons a site may be banned in China, and may answer some of your questions...but not how to get un-banned.

They also have Real-Time Testing of Internet Filtering in China [cyber.law.harvard.edu] where you can ask them to check whether your site is being filtered. I haven't tried this as none of my Chinese sites have been banned in China, but this might be something that interests you.

[Key_Master]

So how hard is it to get on this ban list?

[bill]

If you're dealing with gambling, p0rnography, or any other topic that the Chinese government deems illegal or unwanted then it can be quite easy. According to a recent article [english.gov.cn] on the new China Government website, "porn websites reported by the public every day" indicates to me that they have a report-a-site system in place. This sounds like a very effective way to ban your competition from the China market. ;)

Maybe some of our members from China could comment further on this.

[leunga]

Thanks bill. The article was very interesting and useful. Also great to see that China has a government site in English. It did not test my site with the Harvard tool for one reason or the another.