It seems as if China is blocking Twitter as well as Microsoft’s new search engine Bing. Other blocked sites is WordPress.com, YouTube, Flickr, Hotmail and several others. Ryan McLaughlin blogs from China and thinks the block is due to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4.
I can only predict the next few days will see more and more sites being blocked, hopefully with things returning to normal shortly after (though if past blocks are anything to go by, it could be weeks or months).
Hat tip: Mashable
Author: Thord Daniel Hedengren
Thord Daniel Hedengren is a designer, writer, and blogger, and also the former editor of The Blog Herald. He used to be a hotshot in the gaming industry in Sweden, but sold everything and went International. Most recently he wrote a book called Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, and does loads of kickass design.
Someone I know that blogs in China was saying a few weeks ago that Blogger was blocked from China as well. Was the first I’d heard about it, and someone said right away in her comments (she posted via a proxy) that they thought it was because of the June 4th event.
it’s a clash of the Titans — China versus Microsoft and Twitter
Ya, but unfortunately, this is one clash that China will win, unless the corporations manage to smooth talk them into letting up. In a country like China, where the government has this much control, I’m sure the people will just accept it and move on to other things, rather than try to do anything about it. Protests there have unfortunate ends. This June 4th commemoration is a testament to that. I’m glad I’m living in a country that doesn’t censor free speech and freedom of information to that extreme.