What is "The Great Firewall of China"?

Twitch is one of the largest video game streaming sites in the West, attracting many gamers to its platform. Recently, however, the site has fallen prey to China's watchful eye, which has blocked access to the website throughout China.

SummaryWhat is the "Great Firewall of China"?How are sites blocked?Why was Twitch blocked?Crack in the wallTearing down the wall

This happened after Chinese users rushed to Twitch to see the only Asian Games stream in Jakarta. This means that Twitch has been officially added to the “Great Firewall of China” blacklist, where other popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can be found. So what exactly is this “Great Firewall” and why is China doing this?

What is the "great-firewall-of-china"?

Twitch was likely blocked for the same reason other sites were blocked:it could be a way that critics of the Chinese government can go through the Golden Shield Project. Twitch streams have a chat where people can type in their opinions, the freedom of which is entirely up to the streamer and their moderators. This makes it easy for Chinese citizens to hear anti-government criticism, and as such, Twitch had to be blocked.

The crack in the wall

If you're an avid Facebook or Twitter user, you might find it strange to hear that the Great Firewall is blocking these sites when you've seen people in China happily using the service. This is because they use a VPN service that hides the site the user is trying to access. This bypasses controls and allows a user in China to see sites that would otherwise be blocked. It should be noted that this action is against the law, so it is not entirely foolproof! Even then, not all VPN services will work in China, as the Great Firewall also actively blocks IP addresses of popular VPN services.

Tear down the wall

With more and more sites being added to the Great Firewall of China, it's worth knowing what exactly these are. Now you know what it is, why it was built, how it works and how Chinese citizens bypass it.

Do you think other countries will see something similar to the Great Firewall in time? Or are we already seeing it in action? Let us know below!