“I think the government is just trying to further eliminate Google’s presence in China and even weaken its market overseas,” said a member of GreatFire.org, who uses a pseudonym.
“Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outsideChina might be forced to switch away from Gmail.”
Google’s own Transparency Report, which shows real-time traffic to Google services, displayed a sharp drop-off in traffic to Gmail from China since last week.
“We’ve checked and there’s nothing wrong on our end,” a Singapore-based spokesman for Google said in an email.
The country has the world’s most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism, known as the ‘Great Firewall of China’.
The Google disruption began in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the government’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
“Gmail’s setback could make email communication difficult for companies operating inChina which use Google’s Gmail for their corporate email system”, said GreatFire.
