China Cracks Down on Twitter

The Chinese government blocked access to Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail two days before the 20th anniversary of the attack on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. The ban came in light of growing tension surrounding the anniversary. Many Chinese citizens rely heavily on Twitter as a means of communication, relying on it to communicate information about sensitive issues like the fire at the Chinese state televisioncomplex. Blogger.com was blocked last month and YouTube has been off-limits to mainlaind China since March. Additionally, censors shut down message boards on more than 6,000 college-related websites. Citizens are unsure whether Twitter will reopen to the public after the Tiananmen Square anniversary.