
HN is blocked in China now? - throwaway_cnc
https://en.greatfire.org/news.ycombinator.com
======
shakna
Blocked 12:10:04 PM

Contradictory 11:55:49 AM

Blocked 11:37:07 AM

Contradictory 11:20:47 AM

Contradictory 10:15:02 AM

This sounds like some sort of automatic system, and might be related to Hong
Kong protest posts appearing and dropping off the frontpage.

~~~
yorwba
Unlikely, since even the "blocked" results don't show a complete block. It's
more likely to be either location-dependent (less censorship in metropolises,
more in Tibet and Xinjiang) or it's simply being flaky.

------
devoply
To accommodate the demands of CPC on this site would do this site more harm
than good. It's obvious they don't respect the need for free and open speech.
You can't really dialog with people like that without losing as over time they
will strong arm you into only saying what is acceptable to them.

~~~
ourlordcaffeine
Doesn't ycombinator have operations in China? If so it should be pretty easy
for the CPC to twist yc's arm until they start censoring hackernews.

~~~
dang
Nothing like that has come close to happening, not just about China but about
anything, for as long as I've been admin. Our world would have to go through a
series of state changes for anything of that nature to become possible. That
would be dismaying, so it's good that there aren't any signs of it.

------
tellarin
For whatever it’s worth, I can access HN from China right now.

I also don’t remember any access issues since living here. But I don’t often
access it on the open net.

------
NicoJuicy
At the same time, there is an article about "Hong Kong protesters shooting
lasers to thwart Chinese facial recognition tech"

I wonder if it's coincidence

~~~
A2017U1
There's dozens of anti-China articles daily. Very good chance it is, the gfw
is a mysterious beast that I doubt even the regulators truly understand.

~~~
sabertoothed
One could argue that articles critical of the Chinese government are _pro_-
China rather than anti-China.

------
yorwba
I redid the check and the result is now "contradictory" and not "blocked".
Previously, GreatFire's reported China-1 being able to access HN while the
others were blocked, the second test shows China-3 getting through while the
others don't. Maybe GreatFire randomizes the numbering of their servers
between tests to avoid leaking their location? In any case, the site doesn't
appear to be completely blocked yet.

Edit: And now the test results have changed again, showing 5 servers, of which
2 receive a response. The assignment of server numbers is also definitely
different from before.

------
aaron695
[https://viewdns.info/chinesefirewall/?domain=news.ycombinato...](https://viewdns.info/chinesefirewall/?domain=news.ycombinator.com)

