While the world watches tense protests in Hong Kong, many mainland citizens in China will not be able to see the unrest because of Chinese censorship.
By TIMES STAFF China Media Industry Censorship Instagram Hong Kong
China’s state-run media almost totally ignores Hong Kong protests, or stresses that they are ‘illegal’
Instagram, one of the few Western-based major social media sites that was available in China, is now blocked
Striking photos, videos and news about Hong Kong’s ongoing democracy protests and clashes with police have exploded across TV, radio, newspapers worldwide in recent days, to say nothing of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. But thanks to a near-complete information blackout by Chinese censors, most people in mainland China remain unaware of the situation in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Major state-run news outlets carried only brief mentions of the confrontations, if any, and the subject has been censored off popular mainland-based social media services, including Weibo and Weixin, also known as WeChat.
Hong Kong democracy protests
Chris McGrath / Getty Images
Protesters sing and wave their cellphones after a massive thunderstorm passed over outside the Hong Kong government complex on Sept. 30.
Twitter and Facebook have been blocked for years by China’s Great Firewall, and now Instagram — one of the few major Western social media services to escape the pinch of China’s censors — appears to have joined the roster of inaccessible services, perhaps because of the Hong Kong protests.
Instead, Chinese users of Weibo were preoccupied Monday with a story on how a Chinese celebrity couple had reconciled; it attracted over 440 million views, making it the top trending topic on the service. “Selfies with the Chinese flag” has been among the top 10 trending topics on the site for over a week, as part of the Chinese government’s efforts to push celebrations of the country’s upcoming 65th National Day on Wednesday.
