Great Firewall of China articles from Ghost Path

If you’ve ever been blocked from a website at work, have found yourself in an unexplainable “blackout zone” thanks to sites like MLB.TV, or have arrived in a foreign country only to discover that common sites like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter are banned, you know first-hand the frustration of restricted content!

Though the U.S.A. is the land of the free, there are many instances when we cannot access the websites we wish to visit, thanks to obstacles like workplace restrictions and blackout zones.

But, that’s not nothing compared to the blocked content you’ll encounter when you travel!

In China, you cannot access Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, Soundcloud, Blogspot, certain Yahoo sites, or Google (as well as many, many more). Yes, that’s right – you cannot use Google or any of the Google suite like Google+, Google Docs, Google Maps, or Google Drive! Restrictions like this can seriously impact your quality of life and productivity, especially if you’re traveling for work.

When traveling to India, be prepared to live without Mega, Rapidshare, Bitshare and other file storage and sharing sites, regional MP3 download sites, as well as torrent sites like Pirate Bay. But, perhaps the most perplexing is India’s ban of Google Docs and Google Video. In fact, “according to digital media focused website MediaNama, a Delhi high court order passed on 23 June 2014 instructs internet service providers (ISPs) to block as many as 472 websites” (source: The Times of India).

In Turkey, their 10m Twitter users are complaining. The website was blocked after the Prime Minister vowed to “wipe out Twitter” after the site brought to light allegations of corruption.

Other countries that have put a ban on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube include Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, Eritrea and North Korea, among others.

And, you’ll even encounter censoring in the U.K. In fact, the Washington Post stated that the UK’s ISP filtering systems have “some of the strictest curbs on pornography in the Western world.” (source: Wikipedia) The UK’s new system has been the subject of much criticism ever since it was first introduced in 2013, though Prime Minister Cameron claims that users will have the option to turn the filters off if they so choose, but this has yet to be seen. In July 2014, Open Rights Group investigated and discovered that 19% of 100,000 much-trafficked sites were being blocked in the U.K., with “over-blocked” categories including: sex education, sexual health, help with sex & pornography addiction, support services for rape and abuse, child protection services, suicide prevention, libraries, drug advice, and even parliament, government and politicians’ sites! (source: Wikipedia)

Lastly, let’s cover the issue of watching Netflix, Hulu and other entertainment sites while abroad. Unfortunately, a number of countries don’t grant access to these sites, meaning that you can’t enjoy your favorite shows, entertainment or TV programs when you’re away from home.

If all this censorship has you bummed out, don’t fret. We’ll be back next week with guidelines about how to get around blocked content so that you can enjoy your favorite websites from anywhere in the world!

(Don’t want to wait until next week? Check out GhostPath’s VPN services here, and learn how to bypass MLB.TV’s blackout zones here.)

China has the largest number of people connected to the internet — more than 600 million in fact.

Yet, despite the prolific use of the internet in one of the world’s biggest economies, freedom of information is hard to come by thanks to the communist government’s attempts to block all information that it considers to be politically incorrect or anti-cultural.

This makes it a real challenge for business people and travelers to access common and popular websites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as many others that people access on a daily basis.

These sites are blocked because the Chinese government simply can’t control how people exchange information on them. The censorship tool that China uses is widely known by the nickname “The Great Firewall of China”, or the Golden Shield Project.

In today’s post, we want to offer you some resourceful tips that will enable you to break through this censorship wall so you can access your favorite websites if you plan to visit or currently reside in China.

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, allows you to circumvent these blocks by encrypting your data and sending it through secure virtual tunnels so that you can access social media sites as well as location-specific sites such as Netflix. Even better, most VPN services extend coverage to various electronic devices such as your laptop and Smartphone.

But first, let’s delve into the tactics that The Great Firewall of China uses block websites:

IP blocking
DNS filtering and redirection
URL filtering
Packet filtering
Connection reset

The cool thing is, with a VPN service, you get protection from all these tactics because the service hides your IP address and data, giving you the needed security to access the internet without compromising your access or privacy.

Once you sign up for a Virtual Private Network, you will have to choose your subscription plan depending on how long you will need the service. You can even choose a free service or one with a money-back guarantee to ensure you like it before you commit!

Here’s a step by step guide on how to get your preferred VPN up and running:

After signing up for your preferred subscription method, download the VPN client onto your desktop or phone and install it. This typically takes a couple of minutes.
Sign in via the VPN client user interface using your username and password. (These will be emailed to you once your subscription is active.)
Log in and connect to a server of your choice.
That’s it! Now, you’re all set to surf anonymously and with maximum privacy!

Most VPN services stay secure even in the event of a connection drop, meaning that you have that peace of mind knowing that you’re covered at all times.

With the help of a VPN service provider, you can easily bypass “The Great Firewall of China” and enjoy unlimited access to all your favorite and necessary websites!

To learn more about VPN services or to try it out for yourself, click HERE.

Tag: Great Firewall of China

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