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China's Great Firewall blocked all traffic to a common HTTPS port for over an hour, severing connection to the outside world — with no hint as to its intention


The cause of the incident could be intentional or accidental

Something weird happened with the Great Firewall of China (GFW), which the Chinese government uses to control internet access within the country, on August 20. Studying the GFW is vital because of its humanitarian impact, of course, but it's also fairly unique in that the Chinese government is effectively trying to have its cake and eat it too. Blocking connections to the rest of the world would be economically devastating, so China can't pull a North Korea by cutting off access to the broader internet.

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