[dantondwa]

When a website is blocked by the firewall, it doesn’t load.

When a website blocks Chinese users, the website loads but you cannot create an account.

Yes, the firewall does not block everything, otherwise it would be the same as turning off the internet! There are websites that work.

[GaggiX]

Okay but the point is that ChatGPT is blocked by the firewall.

EDIT: I read the comment below about Hong Kong, but I can't reply because I'm typing too fast by HN standards, so I'm writing it here and yolo: "I'm from Italy and I remember when ChatGPT was blocked here after the Garante della Privacy complaint, of course the site wasn't blocked by Italy but OpenAI complies with local obligations, so maybe it could be a reason about the block. API were also not blocked in Italy."

EDIT 2: if the website is not actually blocked (the websites that check if a website is reachable by mainland China lied to me) then I guess they are just complying to local regulations so that the entire website does not get blocked.

[deadfoxygrandpa]

it's not blocked by the firewall. i'm in china and i can load openai's website and chatgpt just fine. openai just blocks me from accessing chatgpt or signing up for an account unless i use a VPN and US based phone number for signup

as in, if i open chat.openai.com in my browser without a VPN, from behind the firewall, i get an openai error message that says "Unable to load site" with the openai logo on screen

if the firewall blocks something the page just doesn't load at all and the connection times out

[hnfong]

In so far as Hong Kong IPs are "Chinese IPs", we can access OpenAI's website, but their signup and login pages blocks Hong Kong phone numbers, credit cards and IP addresses.

Curiously, the OpenAI API endpoints works flawlessly with Hong Kong IP addresses as long as you have a working API key.

[btzs]

OpenAI API is not blocked. You can set up your own front-end like Chatbot UI.