China blocks access to Gmail

The Chinese government had apparently blocked the ability of people in China to access the email service of Google, through third-party email services like Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook. Many Chinese as also some foreigners had been relying on Gmail accounts after an earlier blocking effort by officials, according to internet analysts and users in China, The New York Times reported.

The blocking started on Friday and caused anger and frustration among many internet users in the country. According to data from Google, traffic to Gmail was dropping to zero from Chinese servers.

It is not just a matter of convenience for Chinese internet users, some foreign companies in China use Gmail as their corporate email service, and so companies would need to ensure that employees had VPN, or virtual private network and software to get into Gmail.

With the software, users can bypass the Chinese internet censorship controls known to most people as the Great Firewall, although the authorities inhibit such software.

With the development, Google joins Facebook, the world's largest social network, blocked in China. The company's Instagram photo-sharing service was blocked this fall when pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong started using it to share photos with mainland Chinese users.

When LinkedIn started offering a Chinese-language version of its business social network this year, it had to agree to censor content seen by Chinese users.

This time, Gmail appears to have been singled out. Representatives of Yahoo and Microsoft said yesterday that the companies had heard no complaints from users in China about their email services being blocked.

US tech companies are pushing for a larger presence in China, but have not been able to make much headway due to local competition and government controls.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that traffic volume for Gmail declined to 85 per cent on 26 December and remains near zero, as per data posted on Google's Transparency Report page.

The latest restrictions had cut off users of third-party services, including the mail app built into Apple Inc iPhones and iPads, and the e-mails would no longer be accessible while messages sent to and from Gmail to Chinese domestic e-mail services had not been bounced back.

"We've checked and there's nothing wrong on our end," Google said in a statement.