Google said Monday China was interfering with its email services, making it difficult for users to access Gmail.
A Google spokesperson said its users in China have reported problems since the end of January. Problems include difficulty accessing the Gmail home page and problems in sending emails. The instant messaging function is often not working as well. "There is no technical issue on our side; we have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail," she said. Google said the blocking appears to be more sophisticated than other problems experienced by users in the past.
The blockage appears to have been designed to disrupt client-server communication in a way that implicates Google's systems. Certain Gmail actions like sending a message or marking a message as read sometimes fail as a result of the interference.
