Skype.com still blocked by the Great Firewall of China despite censorbot
Still no change since March 2007. Not that Hong Kong Skype partner TOM Online doesn't get lots of traffic, but many people want the filter-free International version of Skype.
Total times tested: 19
Total times blocked: 16
Total reactions: 0
Latest 19 results:
| 10.18.2007 | blocked |
| 10.15.2007 | blocked |
| 10.12.2007 | blocked |
| 10.09.2007 | blocked |
| 10.06.2007 | blocked |
| 10.05.2007 | blocked |
| 10.05.2007 | blocked |
| 10.02.2007 | blocked |
| 10.01.2007 | blocked |
| 09.29.2007 | blocked |
| 09.27.2007 | blocked |
| 09.24.2007 | blocked |
| 09.23.2007 | blocked |
| 09.22.2007 | blocked |
| 09.21.2007 | blocked |
| 03.07.2007 | blocked |
| 02.28.2007 | available |
| 02.28.2007 | available |
| 02.28.2007 | available |
Ladders over and tunnels under the Golden Shield let thousands of Chinese reach Skype.com anyway. Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) makes Dynaweb, a way to surf despite the GFW.
Skype decided in September to frustrate those reaching for filter-free chat. When Chinese click for the Simplified Chinese version of Skype.com (the flavor of written Chinese used in the PRC), Skype now opens the TOM Online Skype site, hosting the Skype censorbot.
UPDATE 1: I'm no longer able to reproduce the Skype.com-forwarding-to-TOM behavior. Can you? — Phil
Chinese visitors probably don't even notice the change. 
Skype doesn't tell them they are leaving and TOM's Skype sub-site mimics Skype.com's look and feel. Skype.Tom.com's design abandoned TOM's common page layout, type treatment, and art to mimic Skype's design, as you can see in these screenshots of the two designs (above). The Skype logo is more prominent than TOM's, misleading as well.
If TOM disclaims the censor-bot (which blocks politically charged terms like "Tienanmin Square" and "Falungong"), they buried it somewhere I cannot find.
A Skype spokesperson chatted "we do all our business through Tom in China."
"We've always done our business through Tom Online and have a strong relationship with Tom - going back a number of years. And because we're a global business we look at new ways to manage growth in every market we're available in, and China is a very good market for us. Whatever country you do business in, you have to respect existing local legislation. So from a commercial point of view our partnership with Tom ensure we do this properly in terms of working with the Chinese government."
P.S. SkypeJournal.com has been blocked by the GFW since March 2007.
P.P.S. Congratulations to all the bloggers at the third annual CNBloggerCon in Beijing, this weekend. Blog on!
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