Porn (and More!) Unblocked, but Why?

Facebook gets blocked, and you can’t open a broadsheet without tripping over an in-depth report. But China seems to be in the middle of series of dramatic unblockings, and no one is saying a word! In the past week, a large number of foreign pornography sites, as well as some Chinese ones, have become accessible from China without a VPN. And according to Michael Anti, it’s not just porn sites anymore. He tweeted several hours ago that Vimeo (a video sharing service), HootSuite (a Twitter client), bit.ly, and Xmarks have all been unblocked, too.

UPDATE: The Voice of America News site has also been unblocked.

I find the media, especially the Western media, silence on this increasingly baffling. Unblocking a well-known and widely used Twitter client essentially amounts to unblocking Twitter itself, if I understand the way the service works correctly ((Full disclosure: I am not a HootSuite user)). Youtube remains blocked, but the fact that another major Western video sharing site (Vimeo) has been unblocked also seems significant. And, of course, the unblocking of a number of pornographic websites is fascinating given that the immorality and social instability supposedly caused by porn is the foundation of the government’s case for censoring the internet in the first place.

Oddly, no one seems to know why this is true. Certainly, I don’t have any more insight than the next person, so let’s take a look at some of the potential explanations that have been tossed around:

• It’s a mistake. This one is looking less likely with each day it goes on, unchanged. But it’s still the easiest explanation for a rather baffling change that seems to fly in the face of years of propaganda from the Chinese government.
• It’s a trap! In all seriousness, some people have suggested that it’s a sting operation, although I can’t imagine how that could possibly work. Are they going to arrest everyone who has watched porn or used Twitter in the past week?
• It’s a response to the school killings/Foxconn suicides. Some people have suggested that, in short, the government is starting to fear horny men, and hopes they’ll be placated by YouPorn, and, uh, Twitter. Perhaps these online pursuits can serve as a forum for venting the frustration that was previously manifesting in suicides and homicides.
• It’s related to a certain upcoming anniversary. This one doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, but certainly, weird stuff does happen on the Chinese internet in early June. It’s just that usually more sites are being blocked, not less.
• From a tweet by Isaac Mao: maybe it’s a response to critics in the WTO.

Obviously, none of these are particularly convincing, but very few alternative ideas have been offered up thus far. What’s really going on here? How long will it last? Your guess is a good as ours, but regardless of how long it lasts, I can’t believe no one is reporting on it (that I’ve seen).

If you discover other websites that are unblocked, please report them in the comments!

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