Blogspot, Google’s popular blogging platform is accessible again in China, judging from reports from Chengdu and Beijing.
Blogspot has been blocked and unblocked so many times in China that is barely worth mentioning: it usually works for a few weeks, and then gets blocked again (see this Blogspot chronology on Danwei).
But this time seems to be different. In the past, even when Blogspot was inaccessible in China, people using the platform could still post to their blogs even though they could not read the blogs without a proxy. Today it seems that Blogger, the part of Blogspot used for publishing blog entries, is blocked.
This may just be a technical glitch, but perhaps it is a rather subtle strategy of the Net Nanny:
With Blogspot available, most Olympic visitors are less likely to notice Internet censorship, but stopping Blogger will make it much harder for some athletes, journalists and other visitors to publish their thoughts online.
Update: Judging from the comments, this may just be some type of technical glitch rather than an act of the Nanny: Blogspot is still not available in many places while Blogger is accessible.