The art of being banned in an entire country

March 28th, 2007

I guess I should be proud. Almost wherever I turn, Fenris Designs is subject to censorship.

First, my old high school filtered it. Not surprising; they block a lot of things, I found out: See older entry.

The University of Houston doesn't use filters, to the best of my knowledge, but I'm no longer allowed to write my site's URL in my cartoons. My editor said someone complained, but didn't didn't mention why. Not a big deal, either.

But this got me: According to greatfirewallofchina.org, I'm blocked in China. I'm blocked, but Maddox isn't.

One question: I can see China blotting out anything with sensitive political issues, porn sites, anti-Chinese sympathy, etc. I, however, am an art site. Not to mention an art site with no porn, no hate speech, nothing that would piss off your average Chinese citizen.

Okay, maybe it's because I'm sitting on a furry-oriented server (Update: new server as of 2010.) But after living next door to Japan for awhile, one would assume the Chinese government would be used to it.

Either way, thanks, China. With your tireless devotion to monitoring this impossibly big Internet, millions of your citizens are safe from me and my crappy cartoons, along with any reference to Tibet, Taiwan, and democracy.

UPDATE 8-5-08 For the time being, it appears that Fenris Designs, as well as several other websites, has been unblocked. This is likely a matter of public relations for the 2008 Summer Olympics (not that I'm complaining.) Updates pending.

UPDATE 7-7-10 Almost two years later and I notice visitors are coming to my site from China. That's enough to suggest to me that Fenris Designs is fully permitted. For now, anyway.

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