BLOCKADE

China Adds Washington Post and The Guardian to Firewall Blacklist

The websites join The New York Times, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal.

Websites for The Washington Post and the Guardian newspapers are now blocked in China, adding the outlets to a long list of English-language sites banned as part of the country’s so-called “Great Firewall.” Bloomberg, the New York Times, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have been blocked for years. The censorship apparatus appears to be tightening in the weeks surrounding the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre of June 4, 1989. The country also prohibited users on the popular WeChat social media service to post keywords or pictures related to the massacre. It is unclear when, or if, the newspaper's websites will be unblocked in the future, as China’s Internet censors rarely, if ever, communicate their reasoning for blocking specific websites. Since 2013 China has added more and more foreign media irrevocably to China’s blacklist. Censorship software used by the country is powered by artificial intelligence that constantly adapts to find new private networks used by people trying get around the firewall.