RConversation: Is Gmail being blocked by some Chinese e-mail services?

A number of Chinese bloggers are reporting that several major Chinese e-mail services appear to be blocking Gmails. More testing and investigation in China is needed to determine exactly what is going on and to confirm whether this is some kind of anti-spam function gone haywire or whether it really is deliberate. But many people discussing it online over the past few days strongly suspect the latter.

On Monday, a Chinese blogger who calls himself src wrote a long post detailing the results of some very basic testing. He concludes (my rough translation - improvements welcome):

总结：
Conclusion:

1，目前基本可以确定，网易的163和126邮件系统，搜狐的邮件系统，新浪的邮件系统，Eyou邮件系统，Tom邮件系统(Src 注：好像使用的是网易的系统)都无法正常接收Gmail的邮件。

1. Right now I can basically confirm, WangYi's 163 and 126 email systems, Sohu's email system, Sina's email system, Eyou's email system, Tom's email system (note: they seem to be using Wangyi's system), all of these are not receiving Gmail e-mail normally.

2，Yahoo和Hotmail等或外的邮件系统都非常正常。国内的qq和21cn也能收到Gmail的邮件。

2. Foreign e-mail systems like Yahoo and Hotmail are all very normal. The domestic qq and 21cn are also receiving Gmail e-mails.

3，任何邮件系统向Gmail发送邮件都非常正常，而且基本在1秒钟以内收到邮件。

3. Any system can send e-mails to Gmail accounts normally, and generally the e-mails are received within 1 second.

目前大体可以确认，国内的网络公司在联手封杀Gmail服务。

Right now one can generally confirm that domestic internet companies are uniting to shut out Gmail.

在大体粗测的过程中发现国内的服务还是这样让人难以忍受，而且封杀这样的流氓行径都能做的出来，所以我强烈提倡看到这篇blog的人可以在这里发出任何你想发出的声音。

In the course of this general crude test, one concludes that domestic services are intolerable, and that they can engage in such a hooligan misdeed by shutting out [other services]. So I strongly advocate that those of you reading this blog should speak out here in any way that you want.

He then proceeds to hurl some graphic insults at Sina, Wangyi and Sohu...

The comments section is very interesting. Some people challenging the results (one person calling the tester "retarded"), some people confirming similar experiences.

Kingweblog concludes (at the end of a post reporting problems using del.icio.us - yet another troubling matter):

如果情况属实(也许是有人利用gmail发送垃圾邮件造成的屏蔽)，这些邮箱的用户也都换成 Gmail吧，我这里还有不少Gmail的邀请。这些服务商不好好去改善自己的服务质量用这种牺牲用户利益的手段去竞争能超过对手吗？只能死得更快些。

If the situation is verified to be true (it's possible some people have been sending spam with gmail and caused it to be blocked), the users of these email accounts should change to Gmail. I still have a lot of Gmail invites. Why don't these service companies don't do something to improve the quality of their services rather than using competitive tactics that sacrifice the interests of users? They will only die more quickly this way.

More discussion here (1), here (2), here (3), here (4), here (5), here (6), here (7) and here (8).

Oh yes, and don't forget, if you haven't already done so, go over to the Reporters Without Borders site and join their 24 hour protest against Internet censorship.

Comments

it would be a stupid thing to do for chinese email providers to block gmail. my money is not on that.

i put my money on this being a honest malfunction. of course, the bad PR for china is out now. half the naive readers out there will really believe this is an intentional block.

if chinese email providers really want to "break" gmail, it would be better to block gmail sporadically to create an impression that gmail is unreliable rather than an outright block which will draw criticism.

Posted by: mahathir_fan | November 08, 2006 at 08:00 PM