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Posts from the ‘Censorship’ Category

Mar 10

China Blocking VPN Access

Individuals across China today have been reporting that they have been having trouble establishing VPN connections. Further investigation suggests that the government have blocked ports 1194 and 433, which OpenVPN SSL relies on to communicate.

This is likely to be related to the National People’s Congress which is currently taking place in Beijing, a time at which the communist party become particularly heavy-handed with their control of the flow of information in and out of the country each year.

If past events are anything to go by it is expected that the increased restrictions will be relaxed within the next few days but if you contact your VPN provider they should be able to provide you with an alternative work-around to avoid the blockade.

Mar 7

Top 12 Countries Censoring The Internet

Every year Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF, a Paris-based international NGO that advocates freedom of the press) publishes a list of the top “enemies of the Internet”. In 2010 the following 12 countries were named as the worst violators of freedom of expression on the internet:

In the past few months we’ve seen the dictatorship governments of Egypt and Tunisia toppled by their people through popular uprisings so it will be interesting to see how this list looks at the end of 2011.

If you find yourself in one of these countries you’ll definitely want a VPN to be able to access sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube among many others.