WikiLeaks website blocked behind Chinese firewall

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press – 1 hr 1 min ago

BEIJING – China, one of the biggest Internet policers, took no chances with the latest online sensation and blocked the WikiLeaks website Wednesday amid potentially embarrassing claims made in leaked U.S. diplomatic memos posted there.

Attempts to access wikileaks.org and cablegate.wikileaks.org were met with a notice saying the connection had been reset, or were diverted the user to popular Chinese search engine Baidu. That's the standard response when the connection to an overseas-based website has been cut.

The U.S. Embassy memos — called cables, though they are mostly encrypted electronic communication — contain some frank talk about and attributed to Chinese figures and their North Korean allies.

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It wasn't clear when the blocks were imposed, although a vast swath of the Internet is inaccessible behind China's firewall, including social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101201/ap_on_re_as/wikileaks_blocked