BEIJING - It is the most sensitive day of the year for China's Internet, the anniversary of the bloody June 4 crackdown on pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square, and with under two weeks to go, China's robot censors are working overtime.
Posts that allude to dates, images and names associated with the protests are automatically rejected. June 4 itself is marked by a cat-and-mouse game as people use more and more obscure references on social media sites, with obvious allusions blocked immediately. In some years, even the word"today" has been scrubbed.
In the lead-up to this year's Tiananmen Square anniversary, censorship on social media has targeted LGBT groups, labour and environment activists and non-governmental organisations, they say. "There is constant communication with the companies during this time," said the official, who declined to directly talk about the Tiananmen, instead referring to the"the sensitive period in June".
"We have a basic list of keywords which include the 1989 details, but can more easily select those."In the past six weeks, popular services including a Netease news app, Tencent Holdings' news app TianTian, and Sina have all been hit with suspensions ranging from days to weeks, according to the Cyberspace Administration of China, meaning services are made temporarily unavailable on apps stores and online.
The brutal truth of cold-blooded mass murder in Tianenmen Square in June of 1989 on the part of the Chinese Communist Party cannot be suppressed for ever. That truth will prevail, and its horror will one day fully register in China's polity. When it does, the CCP will die.