Amazon owned IMDB.com, a popular web database of movies and actors, is no longer accessible from China.
Why China Blocked IMDB
While there has been no official comment on why the IMDB site was blocked inside China, rumors on Twitter suggest that this documentary on the Dalai Lama and Tibet may have been the main reason for the block.
The film talks about Tibetans living in exile and their struggle to free Tibet. The film also contains scenes from Chinese occupied Lhasa (Tibet’s capital) and all this may have been enough for the censors in China to put IMDB behind the red firewall.
Other popular websites that are currently blocked in China include Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr and Twitter. Wikipedia is only partially banned in China.
| URL | Reports | Chinese ISP |
|---|---|---|
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Chinanet Shanghai Province Network |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Chinanet Sichuan Province Network |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Beijing Sohu New Era Technology Information Co Ltd |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Cnc Group Beijing Province Network |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | China Mobile Communications Corporation – Jiangsu |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Jinan Suyucivil Drugstore Co Ltd |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Chinanet Shanghai Province Network |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | China Telecom |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Chinanet Shanghai Province Network |
| www.imdb.com | inaccessible | Chinanet Beijing Province Network |
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Reader Comments
huh!!! how do the chinese manage without fb or youtube or twitter!!!!!??
Written by Ankur on 01.08.10
This is absurd… China’s internet filtering list gets longer day by day (:-(
Written by Josh on 01.08.10
Just wondering. People can still access if they want to right? Like using a VPN etc.
Written by Nandan on 01.08.10
maybe too much freedom is bad… i think filtering out porn (only porn) is a good idea. Who wants their kids with access to porn? Installing a porn filtering software might not be the solution, nothing is going to stop him/her from accessing these website at their friend’s place.
Written by Ngan on 01.08.10
At least, we are living in a free world …
Written by Jason on 01.08.10
China will never explode from exterior assault, it will sooner or later implode from its inhabitants awareness. Then, Tibet will be free. Meanwhile, the stubbornness of its leaders condemns them to be recalled in future times as the shame of the great country and of its grand people. Their politic is bound to disappear as dust.
Written by Transcontinental on 01.08.10
It doesn’t even surprise me that China would do something like that. Just makes me glad that I live in the United States and have access to (mostly) whatever information that I want.
Written by ryanMoultrup on 01.08.10
I dn know why they usually block social media sites. Look at VN, it’s also communist, but they do well with social media.
Written by gofree on 01.08.10
Before if I write, Foredoomland, Freedom writers, IMDB will block for a while. But now it is blocked forever. F… them. Any solution? How can I open this site?
Written by Marencai on 01.08.10
This is so irritating. They block the site, but they do nothing at all about movie piracy here in China. I’ve lived here for six years, and I can promise you that even though the site is blocked, those movies will be available here in the DVD markets. – Sometimes, these sites are not blocked for anything other than the fact that some Chinese company is opening up a similar type of site. This allows the Chinese sites to gain more popularity and have a bigger share of the market. – FaceBook = XiaoNei.Com – Blogger = Sina.Com – YouTube = YouKu.Com -
Written by Kyle H. Davis on 01.11.10
typical, shameful, China
Written by Charlie on 01.12.10
marencai is right. its 1/3 politics and 2/3 cash. I live here and use a VPN to get on everything. No problems. And the 2/3 cash includes sites with serious criticism of the govt and ALL of the info available on blocked site. trust me, its about cash.
Written by sasch on 01.12.10
I am involved in English speaking high school programs in China whose graduates attend English speaking universities overseas. It is getting increasingly harder for our learners to develop research skills on the internet – skills that are critical for success in North American universities. Proxy servers, tunnels etc. slow down the transmissions so much one often gets a timed out rather than the site. YouTube becomes so slow to load that one gives up trying.
Education requires free access to information. The learner has to learn to evaluate the source, credibility and value of the information.
What does on do to become educated in China? Suggestions?
Written by Roger on 01.12.10