China blocks Twitter ahead of Tiananmen anniversary
China appeared to block Twitter on Tuesday, following rising popularity for the service in China and just two days before the date when Beijing crushed pro-democracy protests in 1989.
The Twitter Web site would not load in China Tuesday evening, according to people contacted in the country.
Twitter users began posting messages about problems accessing the site or its application programming interface (API) address in the late afternoon. Applications that let users post Twitter messages without visiting the Web site require access to its API.
Messages on Twitter and one well-known blog also said the picture sharing site Flickr.com, Hotmail and new Microsoft search engine Bing became inaccessible Tuesday.
Some Chinese dissidents had appeared in recent months on Twitter, which provided a platform for free speech compared to the heavily patrolled blog services in China.
Twenty years ago on Thursday, hundreds died after Beijing ordered soldiers into its central Tiananmen Square to suppress peaceful demonstrations for democracy. China has stepped up monitoring of known dissidents ahead of the anniversary to prevent any public disturbances.
IDG News Service
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Twitter
Thanks for the well written blog . On the other hand, Twitter is one of the most popular website as of now. Twitter is too easy to use. Twitter lets you keep people informed of everything you're doing, 140 words at a time. Some believe it's the death knell of having an actual life, but they did say the same thing about MySpace and YouTube. None of these sites, by the way, require a credit card to sign up for an account. Marketing people love Twitter, as they get to start networking, and use many other terms which relate to networking but amount to mumbo jumbo. That said, Twitter is making money and a lot of fans. Some, however, would get a cash advance to get a real life (maybe even a girlfriend) and stay off of Twitter.