Not Even China's Great Firewall Can Shut Out News About Hong Kong's Democracy Protests

The massive democracy protests in Hong Kong—and violent police crackdown early on Monday morning, including use of tear-gas canisters and batons—are testing not only the resolve of tens of thousands of student demonstrators, but also the effectiveness of Beijing’s sprawling censorship apparatus. As China’s Communist Party is discovering, in the wake of a major event or protest, not even the Great Firewall can fully stop information from flowing.

Sometime late on Sunday night, Instagram was blocked in mainland China, presumably to stop images from the tear gas-filled streets of downtown Hong Kong from being shared on the popular social network. Facebook and Twitter remain blocked in the mainland, as are the websites of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Businessweek, and several other foreign media companies. Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like social network, is increasingly censored. Tencent’s Weixin (“WeChat”) social network is also now monitored; on Monday, friends sharing information through private small groups on Weixin noticed comments about the Hong Kong protests were mysteriously deleted.