The Firewall Disagrees

This blog is blocked in China. I tested it on greatfirewallofchina.org, where you can check whether any given URL passes through the Great Firewall, and mine doesn’t. Which is personally offensive given that I like Chinese food, have enthusiastically given directions to lost Chinese tourists, and once wrote a school paper on Chinese internet censorship. I thought the last one showed solidarity.

For those new to the story: the Chinese government runs a filtering system that blocks pornography, brings search engines to heel, and monitors chat rooms and online games for anything politically inconvenient. A significant chunk of the world’s population can’t read what I post here, and apparently that includes anyone in the People’s Republic who might have been curious. I may have accelerated my own fate by writing about why Yahoo and Microsoft deserved a boycott for cooperating with Chinese authorities—but I’d say it again.

There’s something absurd and also weirdly flattering about getting flagged. Like the firewall read the room and decided I was too much trouble. I can live with that.