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China Blocks Social Networks in Bid to Hide 1989 Tianamen Square Massacre Remembrance

Posted 06/04/09 at 02:09:10 PM  by Mark Edward Soper

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China tries to prevent its citizens from learning about Tianamen Square by blocking Internet access, but some fight back

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre in Beijing. Tianaman Square was home of the Chinese student freedom movement, the "Goddess of Democracy" statue, and the location for the iconic photo of the student staring down a row of Chinese People's Army tanks. However, if you use the Internet in China, you probably won't see anything about this event this week - unless you're clever.

Starting Tuesday, the Chinese government shut down access to virtually all search engines and social networking sites, including Twitter, Flickr, Bing (Microsoft's new search engine), Live.com, Hotmail.com, Blogger, and others. All YouTube videos are also being blocked, as are BBC World News reports on the anniversary. These actions should come as no surprise, because China has previously censored Skype and blocked access to iTunes when it offered a pro-Tibetan album last year during the Beijing Olympics.

The Techcrunch UK website reports that some users are bypassing China's restrictions by using VPNs, and third-party apps that use the Twitter API (TweetDeck, Twhilr, and Seesmic Desktop) are working.

Have you encountered the 'Great Firewall of China' or other country-specific restrictions on Internet access? How did you deal with it? Hit Comment and share your stories.

Simpsons image courtesy of TechCrunch UK.
 
COMMENTS:10
TAGS: Internet, flickr, twitter, china, web 2.0, censorship, youtube, Social Networks, beijing, blogger, Bing, Live.com, Tianamen Square, 1989, Tank Man, Hotmail.com
COMMENTS
avatarA bit of moderation

Submitted by dread_ire on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 6:13pm

My wife and I are currently living and working  in China.  This is my second year and her third year here.  There are certainly frustrations and things that are different from back home.  But you gain perspective living in another culture for awhile.

 I use a variety of proxies and VPN software to get around the blocks here, Freegate, Ultrasurf, Psiphon, etc.  Its silly that some sites are blocked, but its not much more than an annoyance, you just startup the proxy.

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avatarEven though you were able to

Submitted by thegamepro on Sat, 06/06/2009 - 6:57am

Even though you were able to patch your way through China's censors, I'm pretty sure that they still monitor everyones internet activity and so you should be carefull and if you are able to google Tiananmen square, let me know what results came up.  It would be kind of interesting to find out. 

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avatarShameful

Submitted by chrisisconnorsdad on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 5:52pm

Geez...I am ashamed at the people commenting here.  China's government is a pathetic sham and they have successfully beaten their people down so that they refuse to revolt.  I am proud to see that MaxPC is sponosring a soft revolt by showing people how to bypass their BS laws. 

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avatar  is that pic from the

Submitted by Denis63 on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 4:38pm

 

is that pic from the simpsons? if so, what episode is it from?       -Denis

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avatarSimpsons go to China...

Submitted by Marcus_Soperus on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 6:49pm

This screen grab appears to be from Season 16's "Goo Goo Gai Pan" (March 13, 2005).

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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.

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avatarI say down with all existing

Submitted by habuza on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 3:33pm

I say down with all existing governments and make something that actually works. Quite obvious from the news of various sources that the world is going to shit good and proper.  This world is ruled by liars and thieves.

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avatarIf only China put this kind

Submitted by Cache on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 2:55pm

If only China put this kind of effort into stopping the billions of pirated works flowing from there faster than the backpeddled drivel from Limbaugh.

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avatarWho gives a shit. There

Submitted by Digital-Storm on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 2:34pm

Who gives a shit. There government is so messed up.

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avatarThat's pretty biased.

Submitted by dread_ire on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 5:57pm

I live in China currently.  You get quite a differnt perspective for a people and a culture once you actually live there for awhile.

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avatarHa, so?

Submitted by DOOMHAMMA on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 7:47pm

China is messed up. Female infanticide. Oppressive and controlling government. China carries out huge offensives against religious peoples. People just disappear there. It's a sad country, and the rural areas are dishearteningly poor and have terrible standards of living. Lets not even start with the pollution. China is face and posture, a huge net of lies.

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