Why this blog is banned in China?

[via Matt] I just found out that my blog, along with every other WordPress blogs, is banned in China after reading this Guardian story “WordPress makes a stand for open source morality”.

I am a bit surprised but I am mostly proud of WordPress founding developer Matt‘s brave decision.

Here is an excerpt from Guardian (emphasis mine) about the ban,

As a blog platform, WordPress enables people to speak their mind. Turkey blocked the entire site on a judge’s orders, though Mullenweg expects sense to prevail.

“We had a bigger problem in China. It set the moral compass for the company. About a quarter of our traffic was coming from China. Overnight it disappeared. For a young company, that’s a big deal – it was a million pages a day. We found out if we were willing to forbid certain words, track people and give up their information if asked, we could be turned back on.

“It was tough. We decided that being there under those circumstances isn’t worth it – we’d rather not be there.” Does that mean WordPress is still blocked in China? “Yes, still blocked two years later.“

In life, one has to make a moral stand sometimes even when it doesn’t make financial senses in the short (and possibly long) term. But I am truly proud of what Matt decided.