Hot take: I used to laugh at China's VPN ban until my buddy showed me what he couldn't see from Shanghai

I was sitting in a coffee shop near DuPont Circle in D.C. last month, arguing with my friend Leo who just got back from a teaching gig in Shanghai. I told him the VPN crackdown was just about keeping order, like jaywalking tickets. He pulled out his phone and showed me his old bookmarks folder. Wikipedia, BBC, even a simple Reddit thread about crop rotation. All dead. He said his students couldn't access a single academic journal from outside China without jumping through hoops. That moment hit me. I thought bans were just for porn or extremist stuff, not for basic knowledge. He said a professor got flagged for sharing a PDF about the 1989 protests. Now I can't stop wondering how many other countries do the same thing but quieter. Has anyone else had a friend show you the actual list of blocked sites?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_cooper22d ago

Man, that's crazy. Reminds me of the time I tried to look up a simple Wikipedia article about the Sino-Soviet split while I was in Beijing a few years back and got a big fat nothing. Idk, maybe we're all just one government policy change away from losing access to a random Reddit thread about gardening. It's wild how we take the open web for granted until somebody flicks a switch. Guess the "Great Firewall" isn't just a catchy name, huh.

gray_schmidt822d ago

Wait, are you saying there might actually be consequences to putting all our eggs in one giant global internet basket? Guess I should start printing out my favorite Reddit threads just in case.