China Puts Internet on Lockdown Ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary
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- U.S.’s Pompeo says China continues to abuse human rights
A police officer walks past the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Photographer: Giulia Marchi/BloombergChinese censors are putting the country’s social media sites on lockdown ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
Beijing employs some of the strictest internet controls in the world, rooting out content and blocking websites it deems a threat to stability. But the curbs typically intensify ahead of June 4, the anniversary of bloody student protests in 1989. This year, Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s messaging app WeChat and micro-blogging site Weibo barred users from changing their profile photos and other personal information. Video-streaming service Bilibili said it suspended real-time comments and other features for “technical upgrades.”