The Chinese government has
blocked access to Twitter, You Tube, Hotmail, Flickr and
Microsoft's new search engine Bing ahead of the anniversary of the
Tiananmen Square democracy protests on Thursday.
The move appears to be a measure to prevent protests occurring,
with leading dissidents also being detained or ordered to leave
Beijing.
"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," blogger
Michael Anti told the Guardian.
Beijing IT worker Kaiser Kuo told The Sun that people in China
were not surprised at the government's draconian measures. He said,
"The whole Twitter community in China has been exploding with
it.
"It's just part of life here. If anything surprises me, it's
that it took them so long."
The government sent tanks into Tiananmen Square on June 4 1989
to crackdown on protests by students.