Ai was arrested April 3 for evading "huge amounts" of taxes, according to Chinese state media. However, many were not satisfied by this explanation -- Ai frequently spoke out against the Chinese government, which some think was a likelier reason for his detainment.
In protest, FAT Lab member Greg Leuch created a browser plugin called Chinablocker 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, along with information detailing how long Ai -- and other artists -- have been detained.
In light of Ai's release, Leuch let fly a minor update to the plugin "to announce his release and disable the blocking," he says.
Leuch wasn't the only one to protest Ai's detention: Online petition platform Change.org also hosted a campaign calling for his release and subsequently suffered distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which sent the site offline for different periods of time.
According to The Washington Post, there's no word yet on the other lawyers, activists and intellectuals who were also detained. Ai, however, has agreed to repay his back taxes. He is also apparently in poor health.