China Blocks State-Funded Berlin Twitter Wall

Xiao Qiang — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:41:46 +0000

Chinese authorities appear to be blocking access to a state-funded website which recalls the evil of the Berlin Wall, organizers of the culture project in the German capital said Thursday.
The website invites Twitter users to ‘share your thoughts on the Fall of the Berlin Wall now or let us know which walls still have to come down to make our world a better place.’
The operating company, Berlin GmbH, said the website had been unreachable for Chinese users since Monday, after Chinese Twitter users had posted messages protesting about web censorship in China. It said the cut-off had been confirmed by several sources.

And from AFP: China blocks ‘Berlin Wall’ Twitter page: organisers

China has blocked a website inviting users of microblogging site Twitter to comment on the fall of the Berlin Wall amid a deluge of protests at Beijing’s Internet censorship, organisers said Thursday.
The site was meant to be a place for people to share memories of the night the Berlin Wall was yanked down 20 years ago, but quickly morphed into a forum for protest against what users described as “The Great Firewall of China.”
Of the roughly 3,300 comments left on the virtual wall, around 1,500 have been in Chinese, said Carsten Hein, coordinator of the “berlintwitterwall.com” project.
The site “has not been freely accessible since Monday evening Beijing time,” he added, citing “several current sources.”
According to the China Digital Times, one user wrote: “Mr Hu Jintao, please tear down this Great Firewall,” in a twist on the famous 1987 Berlin speech by then US President Ronald Reagan who implored his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall.”

Read also on CDT: “Mr. Hu Jintao, Tear Down the Great Firewall!” (Updated with Video).

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Berlin Wall, fotw, Internet blocking, Twitter
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“Mr. Hu Jintao, Tear Down the Great Firewall!” (Updated with Video)

Xiao Qiang — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:20:11 +0000

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, KulturProjekte Berlin set up a virtual “Berlin Twitter Wall” where individuals could post their thoughts on the occasion through use of a Twitter hashtag #FOTW. The site’s introduction further invites participants to “let us know which walls still have to come down to make our world a better place!” Chinese netizens have made their voices heard on this last point, and Chinese comments bashing the Great Firewall and Internet censorship now dominate the site. Selections of these comments are translated by CDT below:(...)
Read the rest of “Mr. Hu Jintao, Tear Down the Great Firewall!” (Updated with Video) (1,462 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Berlin Wall, Fag Binxing, Fang Binxing, fotw, GFW, Great Firewall, Internet censorship, tweets
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China Digital Times (CDT) » Post Tag: fotw

China Blocks State-Funded Berlin Twitter Wall

“Mr. Hu Jintao, Tear Down the Great Firewall!” (Updated with Video)