China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Chinese censors blocked access to Twitter and other popular online services on Tuesday afternoon, two days before the twentieth anniversary of the crackdown on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square which cost hundreds of lives.

The move came as authorities detained a leading dissident and ordered another to leave Beijing in an indication of the intense sensitivity around Thursday's anniversary.

Users reported that the photo-sharing site Flickr, Google-owned video service YouTube, Microsoft's new search engine Bing and its email service Hotmail, and other services were also unavailable across the mainland.

"Twitter is a tool which can put all the sensitive things and sensitive guys together, very quickly. That's the very thing that the Chinese government doesn't want to see in China," said blogger Michael Anti, who had predicted that Twitter would not be allowed for long. "They needed time to figure out what it is and whether it needed to be controlled."


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/02/twitter-china

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Cuba should not be allowed to rejoin the Organization of American States until it makes political reforms, releases political prisoners, and respects human rights."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1058394.html

Let's play compare and contrast.

DU thread,

Microsoft blocks Messenger in Cuba
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x15522


So while most every US politician DEMANDS that Cuba expand free expression, the US Treasury Dept OFAC tells Microsoft to kill Messenger and Hotmail in Cuba.

The US standoff and sanctions against Cuba is all about bullshit!