As of September 29, the following search terms are blocked on Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).
Hong Kong Protests: Protests for electoral reform have escalated after a week of student protests. Police used tear gas and pepper spray yesterday as the faced tens of thousands of Hong Kongers in the streets. Stay up to date on the situation with CDT.
- 香港＋学生: Hong Kong + students
- 香港＋罢课: Hong Kong + student strike
- 香港＋催泪弹: Hong Kong + tear gas canister
- 香港＋开枪: Hong Kong + open fire
- 香港＋抗命: Hong Kong + disobey orders
- 香港人＋上街: Hong Kongers + take to the streets
- 公民抗命: citizens disobey orders
- 公民广场: citizen plaza
- 占中: Occupy Central (abbreviation)
- 占领＋中环: occupy + Central
- 占领＋金钟 occupy + Admiralty
- 黄之锋: Joshua Wong—17-year-old student leader labeled a “separatist” by Chinese state media.
- 学联: Student Alliance—First block detected December 6, 2011.
- 黄丝带: yellow ribbon—Originally the symbol of support for universal suffrage in Hong Kong, the yellow ribbon was later adopted by Occupy Central organizers. Currently, supporters of the Hong Kong democracy movement from around the globe are organizing yellow ribbon campaigns.
- 香港加油: Go Hong Kong
- 香港挺住: Hong Kong stand firm
- 声援＋香港: support + Hong Kong
- 支持香港: support Hong Kong
- 今天我们都是香港人: today we are all Hong Kongers
Update: Three more blocked search terms have been detected:
- instagram＋屏蔽: Instagram + block: Instagram appears to be blocked in mainland China.
- instagram＋被墙: Instagram + be “walled”–i.e. blocked by the Great Firewall.
- 819讲话: August 19 speech: President Xi Jinping delivered a speech on August 19, 2013 at the National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference stressing Marxist valued and the “material and spiritual aspects” of the Chinese Communist Party.
All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.
CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information.
Have a sensitive word tip? Submit it to CDT through this form:
