FAT Lab member Greg Leuch’s browser plugins have been mainly whimsical (abolishing mentions of folks like Justin Bieber and Charlie Sheen), but now, the developer has gone political with the release of China Blocker. It serves as a protest against the detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Ai was arrested April 3 for evading “huge amounts” of taxes, according to Chinese state media. However, many, like Leuch, are not satisfied by this explanation — Ai frequently spoke out against the Chinese government, which some think a likelier reason for his detainment.
“FAT Lab has a history of creating projects that endorse open source technology and Internet freedom,” Leuch says. “We are attempting to raise awareness of Ai’s and others’ issues in China, and this is just a small part toward some of our larger goals of protecting Internet freedom and artistic expression.”
This awareness comes in the form of a browser plugin for Chrome, Firefox and Safari that blocks all Chinese websites. When you come across such a website, a middle finger (a homage to one of Ai’s works) will pop up, as well as info detailing how long Ai — and other artists — have been detained.
When Ai is released, users will be alerted, and the block will be lifted.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Daquella manera
More About: ai weiwei, china-blocker, FAT-Labs
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