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China Blocking News of Nobel Winner Liu Xiaobo with Great Firewall

by Terrence O'Brien on October 8, 2010 at 06:20 PM

Liu XiaoboThe world was abuzz today with news that jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had won the Nobel Peace Prize. Except in China, that is, where the country's censors were working overtime to expunge his name from all media. It's not enough that state owned news station and papers won't report on Xiaobo's win, the country is also blacking out commercial stations like CNN during segments in which they report on the news. And the so-called Great Firewall is proving just how powerful it can be. Online news sites are being blocked and searches through Google and other providers are actively being censored if they mention "Nobel Prize" or "Liu Xiaobo." Twitter and other microblogging services can't escape either. Xiabobo's name, a trending topic on Twitter, was blocked in China as well, and not even text messages are safe from the firewall.

CNN reports that one Shanghai resident, @littley, tweeted, "My SIM card just got de-activated, turning my iPhone to an iPod touch after I texted my dad about Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize." That message wouldn't be visible to other Chinese residents. For those who have learned to circumvent the Great Firewall, however, the news that the human rights activist and countryman had won was a welcome sign of hope.

Tags: censorship, china, great firewall, GreatFirewall, Liu Xiaobo, LiuXiaobo, nobel prize, NobelPrize, politics, social networking privacy, SocialNetworkingPrivacy, top, web

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