China is preparing for an anniversary, and this is by no means a celebratory one. But how is the Chinese government marking the event?
For the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest turned massacre, online censorship in China will intensify.? There’s already been reports of increased blockage on Google services like search, Gmail, You Tube and translation. Linkldin also walks a fine line. They set up a Chinese professional network, but yet they’ve been venerable to this new censorship.? The Tiananmen Square march started when university students demonstrated against the communist party. This June 3-4, 1989 protest lead to the massacre of hundreds. Who can forget the man standing in front of the tanks? So they chose this sensitive date do further limit international online influence. Now add a slowing economy, ethnic tensions, and international tensions with nations like Japan and Vietnam. I don’t see China’s censorship of media going down, not even after this anniversary is over.
But is this the message China wants to send, especially at this time? It seems to me the 25th anniversary would be a time where you loosen censorship, not intensify it. If they take down these barriers and create an open and free Internet, that would say, “Look at how far we’ve come since this tragedy.” But to increase censorship during a time this only reminds us the more things change, the more they remain the same. What do you think companies like Google or Linkldin should do in this case?