What does Timed Out mean?

This form of censorship means that the web request is manipulated by the Great Firewall of China such that it loads indefinitely without a response. The browser gives up after a period of time and displays a message such as "The connection has timed out". Without access to circumvention tools, it's not possible to distinguish between this form of censorship and server problems. As a result, many users may interpret the message as a technical problem caused by the website itself.

Our system concludes that a website is subject to Timed Out censorship if:

1. When accessed from the US, the web request takes less than 15 seconds, and
2. When accessed from China, the web request takes 15 seconds or more