Google accuses China of sabotaging Gmail

Following problems with the Gmail email service in China, Google has reached a conclusion: it’s not me, it’s you.

Engineers have looked into the problem at length, and concluded there is nothing technically wrong. This means it must be government hackers targeting Gmail, the company said in a statement:

“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.”

Speculation now has it China is worried the political unrest from the Middle East could spread eastwards, aided by the internet.

China already blocks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Problems with Gmail has been reported in China since the end of January, when people have struggled accessing the Gmail homepage and sending messages.

Google has yet to comment on whether it will raise the issue with the Chinese authorities, but Google last year said it would no longer participate in censorship in Chinese search results.