On 2nd of June, a number of overseas websites including twitter, flickr and youtube have been blocked. Today, on 3rd of June, a large number of local websites, including Fanfou (Chinese version of twitter) and VeryCD (user generated resource sharing website), have put up system maintenance notices stating that the websites would be inaccessible until June 6.
According to some twitter reports, some websites decided to take a few days off because of the pressure from propaganda department. Website administrators were asked to tighten their self-censorship, if any post carry key term such as “democracy” tomorrow, the websites would be forced to close down. (via williamlong) Some websites and personal blogs decided to shut down for a day for commemorating June 4th.
With all the blocking and system maintanence measures, June 4th has occupied the third most searched key term in google.cn (June 3 10:09pm), although netizens could not get much information from the result list.
Info-activists have composed a spreadsheet for compiling information on blocked sites and temporarily suspended websites. Although the informations are yet to be confirmed, it is still a good reference on information control during the 20 anniversary of June 4. Below is a selection from the spreadsheet listing:
Websites temporarily closed for system maintanence:
fanfou.com
verycd.com
wordku.com
hihicd.com
yeeyan.com
bokee.org
bbs.tecn.cn
Websites that suspended some of its function (such as comment, group, new user registration, etc.):
xiaonei.com (Chinese version of facebook)
tieba.baidu.com
douban.com
Blocked sites:
twitter.com
blogspot.com
youtube.com
flickr.com
bing.com
cmule.com
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posted on June 3rd, 2009 at 8:16 pm - #17371Gotta love the use of the term “maintanence” in reference to a temporary political shutdown.
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