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Q: Did Dropbox just get blocked ?
Seems my phone is no longer uploading autmogically and I cannot get '
This makes me sad, if I have to connect a cable to get phones to my computer, or use VPN on my phone
9 years 52 weeks ago in Web & Technology - China
Everything Google has been blocked. Gmail, google translate, google everything....it's all blocked....switched to bing and yahoo for the time being..
Doing business online here is becoming really annoying...
Everything is blocked because of hurt Chinese feelings or they can't compete with superior service. I was going to do a split stay in the Philippines and China... but if they continue this... then China is off the board.
Profanity alert (sensitive flowers turn away now)
Fuppin Jebus, I'm so glad i am leaving soon. It is impossible to communicate properly or research material because apparently ESL sites are 'sensitive'.
How do IT companies, or ANY company manage to do business in such a restrictive environment?
DrMonkey:
Yep. Many major software have their developer's documentation online. Because of the restrictions on anything pointing out to Google, those documentation are now broken or really slow, killing productivity. No, I'm not going to remember the 15000 functions and their millions parameters of this framework by rote.
Also, good luck to convince your customers to not use their favorite services, because *your* gouv. decided to block them. Bunch of insecure twats with a massive chip on their shoulders.
Robk:
Fuppin Jebus is profanity? 
Yeah, you are 100% correct. I am pretty certain China doesn't want us here and they are doing a VERY good job of repelling us now. Everything is getting blocked even VPNs... China is going backwards... I guess the CCP like what they see in North Korea.
Yep everything is blocked in Shenzhen too unless I use a VPN.
Every single non-Chinese popular IT service or tool, may it be for entertainment, work, research, communication, you name it, is DEEMED to be banned, unless they agree to make a deal with the government probably including licking ass, money, tech transfer, no sensitive content and the usual bullcrap.
That's where it's headed.
The idea behind that nothing should be left unmonitored on the Internet, and no foreign service should be allowed to develop (instead have the local weak copycat take the place).
It's obnoxious too because they know on some level that real business CANT be done without open access.
ALL big and many small companies here need to be able to communicate freely on the internet to compete. My office (and i'm sure many many others) has a dedicated line to a proxy server in HK that routes in all our traffic. BTW having a dedicated proxy server is awesome...it's 100% the real internet at full speed regardless of time.
They can't make the great firewall unassailable or they'd become uncompetitive...they just need a high enough barrier to keep your average zhou from using it to get bad information.Tons of locals with international ties use vpns at home and they don't really care; selection bias makes those tend to be normal successful people who aren't likely to plan riots.
But it's also just protectionism...by making it a political issue instead of a trade issue they actually make it easier to swallow.
"Oh it's just China being paranoid again, those silly little guys!"
and not
"China is illegally blocking access to their markets, we should impose sanctions in kind"
RiriRiri:
Exactly this.
Anyway, the problem is they went all-in way too soon in this matter like in many others.
I feel the central gov thinks they already grew strong, that they already got everything they wanted from the outside and it's time to close the gates (and become openly aggressive). Well, even when I try to put my bias aside and follow this standpoint, I can't help but feel it's quite too early for that.
Another theory, slightly crazier, is that they are foreseeing trouble coming in short middle term and they want to secure an optimal control of public opinion beforehand.
expatlife26:
i think it's a combo of control and protectionism.
I guess their social problem now is that they told everyone to just be patient and we'll all get rich eventually...but i think that's a hard sell at this point.
Tons of people sold their farmland, have these big expectations of what life is gonna be and then they're still stuck living like assholes in a crummy village.
I mean it's cool that there cities can be really nice now and some people live more fulfilling lives, but if I was your average farmer turned migrant worker I might be asking myself, "is this really any better than before?"
From Dropbox support
"Unfortunately the Chinese government has blocked access to the Dropbox website and to most of the Dropbox servers. As this is beyond our control there is currently no solution we can offer for this problem."
which in my mind is highly unambitious from the Dropbox people. Singe greatire.org can remain up, then I don't see why everyone else cannot.
RiriRiri:
There IS nothing they can do, except either changing the IP of their servers, which is annoying and temporary, or go see the CCP, cry out loud and accept the following butthurt... sorry the "official guideline of a harmonious website, and apply for an ICP number".
Dailymotion tried that path. They got unblocked last year. With shitty bandwidth. For a week or two.
Scandinavian:
They can run off Amazon AWS. That is what large Chinese companies does, which is why it is difficult to block Amazons servers.
RiriRiri:
That's what they're doing already. But no matter what, Amazon is only for storing layouts and pictures, at some point you fatally need some link to your own servers.
Scandinavian:
I am familiar with the pricing of AWS, so I wouldn't want to run a storage heavy service as dropbox from there. But their client could access an AWS server, and politely ask "Hey, give me an IP that works right in this moment"
RiriRiri:
Now the question is, as an important Californian IT company, would you rather have all your stuff stored in that other Californian IT giant next door, at a cost, or just drop a market that's not actually that interesting.
Australian radio has been blocked in Xinjiang for over 3 months now.
And as of 3 weeks ago it has become impossible to listen to Aust football.
And private emails sent from a Chinese address to an English address are blocked too.
As someone above has mentioned I think they're preparing to close up shop again.
Hell, if Sorrel is getting out then perhaps we should all just take her lead.
