Recently, this ‘umbrella revolution’  has become a hot topic among people. As is read in Cherry Zhu’s blog, Instagram joined the list of social networking services blocked in mainland China as lots of users shared images of Hong Kong protest.  In addition, WeChat, a messaging app, was down in Hong Kong, and the search results of ‘Occupy Central’ and ‘Hong Kong Protest’ was banned from Sina Weibo, China’s main microblogging platform.  Also, Chinese authorities had blocked a variety of Google services such as Google search and gmail in China in June.

I agree Cherry ’s opinion that running a media business in China is not really easy. Chinese censorship have restricted so much resources that people can access to the freedom of speech. Under the control of the Party, the reports of issues like protest and ethnic strife will be blocked for sure, because the Party and the government does not want to incite social unrest. Chinese government has also steer online conversations away from sensitive topics.

Chinese internet companies are regularly issued with lists of restricted keywords, and often censor blog posts and other content to avoid trouble with the authorities. For example, if Sina Weibo does not restrict the term like ‘Hong Kong Protest’ , the authorities will exert pressure on the sina leader and may affect the operation of the website system.

Link:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/cherryyijingzhu/2014/10/01/blockage-of-instagram-in-china/