China shuts down domestic social media

According to sources in Beijing and Shanghai, sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been inaccessible since early July following the mass outbreak of riots in Xinjiang province. But last week, reports surfaced that Chinese microblogging sites such as Fanfou, Digu and Jiwai have also shut down.

“This is the first time there has been a consistent order that censors both Western and Chinese sites,” one Shanghai-based digital analyst said, adding that the cause of the shut downs is unknown.

“Usually you see shut-downs occurring during times surrounding politically sensitive dates, but I don’t think there is any specific event coming up. The last time we really saw this was the time leading up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots, but that affected access to Western social media websites,” said the source. “This may be part of a larger general movement to clean up content and the Chinese internet.”

“It’s happened to video-sharing sites in China in the past but it really is unusual for domestic sites to be temporary shut down,” added a Beijing source, further pointing out that censored Western sites are “blocked” while mainland sites are “temporarily shut down” and often display maintenance messages when users try to access their URLs.

Sources add that access to microblogging sites including Zuosa and Tencent's Taotao has not been restricted. Video-sharing sites such as Youku and Tudou are not thought to be affected.

Despite the censorship efforts, Chinese netizens have discovered alternative methods of accessing sites such as Twitter. “There are always alternative avenues to be found to access these sites. As soon as someone puts a wall or barricade around them, there’s always a way around it,” said Tim Haynes, general manager of Starcom IP China. “There are a bunch of smart people in China who can do that.”