The stars in my sky are Flickr-ing out ...

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We were tipped off by Shanghaiist contributor Micah in the Contribute page that Flickr is possibly no longer working in China. We've done numerous checks with various people and it appears that while Flickr has definitely not been GFW'ed, one can no longer access it with Firefox even with this add-on. The only thing we see is a blank screen, although the Flickr favicon does actually show up. Both Internet Explorer and Safari are loading Flickr up fine, except of course that the pictures are just not showing up.

It doesn't just end there. Yahoo is also inaccessible now it seems, although both Yahoo.com.cn and Yahoo.cn are still working as usual. Has it been GFW-ed? Is the inaccessibility of the two websites related?

We'd like to keep close tabs on this, so wherever you are in China, please let us know how the the two websites load up in your region. In the meanwhile, there is no picture in this post to mourn the (temporary?) loss of Flickr. Who knows, posts may start to look like this very often in the future. In the meanwhile, feel free to stick a pin into this voodoo doll!

UPDATE: Upcoming.org, now part of the Yahoo family, is also apparently blocked. del.icio.us appears safe ... for now.

UPDATE 2: There is a related discussion on ShanghaiExpat.

UPDATE 3:
Flickr is working again, and so is Yahoo! Unfortunately, Wikipedia has gone down again, so our joy was shortlived. NO wait, it is back up again! Really, what's up, Net Nanny? Having a bad hair day? We're not expecting any official explanation for the test-block technical glitch anytime soon, so conspiracy theorists start working right now!

Related links:
Having Flickr problems?
Flickr block could be related to events of 9 days and 18 years ago

Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Kenneth Tan in Other on June 28, 2007 3:11 AM
  • China
  • events
  • Flickr
  • hair
  • Having Flickr
  • Internet
  • internet
  • Internet Explorer
  • Net Nanny
  • people
  • pictures
  • Shanghaiist
  • the future
  • US

Comments [rss]

  • Zat Liu

    craiglist is working for me in Shanghai

  • guest

    there are people using craigslist? wow.

    work here, CNC in Hongkou

  • Jeff Jorve

    looks like craigslist shanghai got hit by the censors as well....

    can anyone else not access craigslist?

  • guest

    It's sad times when we all cheer for flickr getting only half-banned again.

    yahoooo!

  • guest

    (Wizard's voice in Wizard of Oz)

    All ye foreign barbarians splay yourselves onst floor before ye with thy headed pointed towards thy city of thy lords on earth (aka Beijing) and beginst chanting slogans of loyalty and devotion!

    But really, you people need to get VPNs, China won't cut those off as all of the big foreign offices use them. You can even get speedy connections through HK and Macau.

    nanheyangrouchuan

  • guest

    @ guest:

    let me guess, you run a proxy somewhere in russia? ;-)

  • guest

    nope nope :)

    i won't use an university porxy, if something is not safe than it's university proxies (i know more than i should do)

  • guest

    Flickr working with plug-in, Yahoo! recovered, here in Fujian.

  • guest

    i'm in changshu, jiangsu province, and yahoo, flickr and wikipaedia all seem to be working

  • Micah Sittig

    Possibly related to these:

    Yahoo condemns Chinese repression, continues to aid it

    By Nate Anderson | Published: June 12, 2007 - 10:43AM CT

    arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070612-yahoo-condemns-chinese-repression-continues-to-aid-it.html

    Yahoo Slams China for Censorship

    By Dikky Sinn, June 11, 2007 8:11AM

    www.newsfactor.com/news/Yahoo-Slams-China-for-Censorship/story.xhtml?story_id=120000DZW4CO

    Right now Flickr seems to be yoyo-ing up and down, though.

  • guest

    Before you guys suggest using some shady proxy sites or tor again, have a look here:

    anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html

    it's run by a german university, so your emails, passwords and credit cards should be somewhat save with them, can't say that about tor or other shite you usually use.

  • Jeff Jorve

    Flickr and Yahoo! are both back, Wikipedia remains down. Good times.

    In other GFW conspiracy theory-related news, has anyone else been having sporadic trouble using google search? Could it be an underhanded attempt by the government to ensure Baidu's dominance by throwing problems google's way every once in a while? Just a thought...

  • guest

    plus i get a connections reset when i try to follow the shanghaiexpat link :)



    weired stuff going on atm :)

  • guest

    just came unblocked... both yahoo and flickr are now working

  • guest

    weired stuff happening.

    I just DISABLED the acess flickr plugin for firefox that was circulating a while after the firct flickr ban, and flickr And yahoo.com work absolutly fine. i can even see all the pictures on flickr itself , but not on webpages :)

  • guest

    Blocked before 10:30, unblocked as of 10:45.... seems like china wants something from yahoo and is test-blocking them

  • T

    Not only is flickr down, but wikipedia is down again (after about a month of access)

    How am I supposed to adjust my starting pitchers if Yahoo is down? Doesn't the GFW know I'm in second place right now? Gaah. I will so hate the government if they cause me to drop places in my baseball league.

  • guest

    So Shanghaiist was running an advert for Witopia Personal VPN and I just tried it--it actually allows me to view all the GFW'd sites: Flickr, Wikipedia Chinese (though it doesn't help me much), my own blog on blogspot, and even googling certain sensitive topics (e.g. Tianmen, semi-conductors, which to my dismay, is a sensitive topic!). But without it, yes, I can't see Flickr.

  • guest

    same thing in shanghai.

  • wulong

    both Flickr and Yahoo are out up here in Beijing.

  • wulong

    yahoo and flickr are both out for me up here in Beijing.

  • kiwiuncle

    What is it about Flickr that causes people to use it to such an extent? There are other photo sites. I have just received notice from Yahoo that they are closing their photo site to concentrate on Flickr. Being in NZ still allows me to see the pics! :-) Great lightning shot.

  • guest

    Thanks to the blocking of Yahoo I can't reclaim my username for commenting here. So now I need to find another email account to use for junk mail and signing up for websites.

  • Jakob Montrasio

    Yepp, can't access it either...

    How can they block Yahoo!???

    What's next, Google? ;)

  • guest

    I'm in DongGuan and Yahoo is blocked here too so I can't access my email. I agree, very bad move.

  • guest

    I am in Changchun and neither of these are working for me. I was actually uploading pictures to Flickr yesterday when the ban dropped down, drat it.

  • tmaxmeta

    Sorry, take my last comment back. Seems Yahoo is still blocked although I was able to access the home page for a few minutes. Bad move China.

  • tmaxmeta

    Yahoo was defintely blocked as of last night and only started working at about 7:00a.m. Beijing time this morning (Thursday June 28).

    Good move by China to unblock the site since so many thousands of foreigners use it daily to access email they vitally need for their business. It doesn't make a good impression by the country hosting the Olympics next year to be censoring an international website like Yahoo.

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