Written by Simone Ziggiotto, the 12/29/14
The popular email service Gmail Google has become unavailable in China, in what appears to be the latest move by Beijing to curb the presence of the American giant in the country.
The data on Google’s website show that traffic Gmail in China fell sharply from Friday. The service seems to be blocked for applications on mobile devices, that were able to connect with it.
Google spokesman Taj Meadows said that “there was nothing for us” .
The State Internet Information Office of China did not respond to a request for comment by the media. During a press conference, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said he was not aware of the matter.
The Chinese authorities, who strictly control the content online, sometimes lock or unlock the Internet sites and services without giving reasons. It is not clear whether access to Gmail has been deliberately blocked.
Foreign Services like Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, among others, are blocked in China.
Gmail and other Google services are being blocked in China as early as June, before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. However, Gmail users were able to log in using the email applications of third parties.
Google has clashed with Beijing in 2010, after the company decided to stop censoring search results on the Internet in China. Google has moved most of its Chinese operations in Hong Kong as a result, and many of the services of the company in the mainland have since worked intermittently.
As for the other services blocked in China, users Gmail will now have to access the application via virtual private networks or exploit other methods able to circumvent censorship.
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