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China drops Dropbox

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Re: China drops Dropbox

#41

Post by jhancock »

jacquesm wrote: post #10

Does dropbox have many Chinese customers ? Has it been identified as a 'circumvention device'?

I'm surprised people have been using dropbox from China. Most SaaS run from the U.S. are too slow and long connections are very likely to get dropped. I suppose the dropbox client must be highly fault tolerant.

As to it being identified as a 'circumvention device', there are many reasons why it could have been blocked...some automated methods and some that require a person. It could be as simple as someone published a file with certain keywords in it and that file link got posted in a few places...then bam...automatic block. We don't know the rules to the system. And there are actually several systems, run by different government departments...with support from many more non-government employees of web sites.

Re: China drops Dropbox

#42

Post by jhancock »

potatolicious wrote: post #16
twapi wrote: post #15

just one thought on this situation: why don't Chinese netizens protest loudly against such policies??

> "why don't Chinese netizens protest loudly against such policies??" Here in the West we take the right to protest quite for granted, as this post demonstrates :) Not ragging on you at all, really, but who exactly would the Chinese protest to? How would they do so? And what would prevent them from being jailed or worse for their efforts?

Many Chinese forums are abuzz with complaints about the censorship. Many of these postings get removed or partially censored, but there are millions of people online complaining. This is certainly protest and anyone on the web in China can see it.

Although I'm not sure who would bother to do so...you can go to a government office and file a complaint without fear of being whisked off to a secret prison. Its if you're becoming a successful organizer of activists that you may end up in trouble.

Re: China drops Dropbox

#43

Post by nash »

dhouston wrote: post #32

we're bummed about this. it's probably a fruitless exercise, but does anyone have any insight into how to get unblocked?

Depends on why it was blocked.

Generally speaking if it's because of a local competitor (eg youku or renren (vs youtube or facebook)) I would not hold my breath.

Re: China drops Dropbox

#46

Post by kmavm »

thechangelog wrote: post #11
zaidf wrote: post #8

Chinese gov is ridiculous. My girlfriend made a one word posting on the Chinese clone of facebook that read "freedom". The post disappeared in minutes and she received a private message warning her that her account may be deleted if she continues making such posts. One upside is that Chinese people seem to be a little more tech savvy. ie. many of them are forced to learn about proxy servers so they can go around the…

Not trying to doubt you, but was it really just a one word post that elicited that reaction? Did the message come from Facebook or someone else? Is this a common occurrence? That level of censorship boggles the mind...

I'd like to point out that it wasn't Facebook, but "the Chinese Facebook." Facebook is behind the great firewall; there's a local clone.

Re: China drops Dropbox

#47

Post by est »

radicaldreamer wrote: post #17

It's sad how the Chinese government don't seem to realize that they're impeding their own people's progress and global competitiveness, especially for business that requires innovation and speed, with such moves.

Chinese government don't give a fuck to innovation. They just want profit. If innovation harms the stabilization, they just drop it.

Re: China drops Dropbox

#48

Post by [deleted] »

DilipJ wrote: post #35
slug wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

once upon a time, they did: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/

I always hoped that poor fellow ended up ok after that. My gut tells me that no one ever heard from him again. I don't think any other photograph defines courage as much as that one. As for the business restrictions, what can you do? I do admire companies like Google that can take a moral stand against Beijing's censorship.

[deleted]

Re: China drops Dropbox

#49

Post by b-man »

barmstrong wrote: post #22
zaidf wrote: post #8

Chinese gov is ridiculous. My girlfriend made a one word posting on the Chinese clone of facebook that read "freedom". The post disappeared in minutes and she received a private message warning her that her account may be deleted if she continues making such posts. One upside is that Chinese people seem to be a little more tech savvy. ie. many of them are forced to learn about proxy servers so they can go around the…

What services do people use to proxy around it? Just curious.

Tor[1].

[1] http://www.torproject.org/overview.html.en

Re: China drops Dropbox

#50

Post by CapitalistCartr »

twapi wrote: post #15

just one thought on this situation: why don't Chinese netizens protest loudly against such policies??

You must be young. A few years ago, a bunch of students did. In a central square in Beijing called Tienanmen square. The government ran them over with tanks. China is not the West.
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