Breaching the Great Firewall

One of the first things I noticed upon checking into my hotel in Beijing in late October was that my personal blog was inaccessible. I was blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

It's not that the Chinese government finds my thoughts on local politics, UNC basketball, and my wife's photography to be a particular threat. All blogs on the TypePad service are off-limits, along with Google's Blogger platform, and sites including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Social media has proved itself useful in organizing dissent in other countries. As the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre approached this summer, China tightened its restrictions on user-driven sites.