Friday, June 8, 2012

China's taboo..........

Chinese authorities have blocked some search terms on their search engines related to the 23rd anniversary of the 1989 crackdown against protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The terms like "six four", "23", "candle" and "never forget", cannot be searched in the Chinese search engines, they do not give any information.

For people who do not know about the 1989 unrest, hundreds of pro-democracy protesters gathered in central Beijing were shot dead by troops. It was never disclosed how many people were killed by the government. But it is estimated that it might range from several hundred to several thousand killed. It is believed that censoring any online talk related to the event is extremely important for Beijing this year, as the government gets ready for a leadership handover.

Although Google search is not banned in China, people using it are routed to the local engine's servers based in Hong Kong. Google in Hong Kong has recently added a new feature indicating to users as they type, in real time, which words are "sensitive".