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June 4 fell this weekend, which, in China, marks the anniversary of the\u00a0Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, one of the most infamous dates in the country\u2019s modern history.<\/p>\n
The government has never acknowledged nor commented upon<\/a> the event \u2014 which resulted in upwards of 300 deaths as troops\u00a0forcibly suppressed student-led protests.<\/p>\n China\u2019s internet regulators are usually hard at work over the period, wiping out and preventing any potentially damaging comments online. In recent years, the state has put the onus on social network operators themselves<\/a> to \u2018police\u2019 their users. This year microblogging service Weibo \u2014 \u201cChina\u2019s Twitter\u201d \u2014 clamped down on all overseas users with a ban on uploading images and videos from Saturday until the end of Monday. But, as the FT noted<\/a>, there was no ban \u2014 officially, at least \u2014 since Weibo explained that the procedure, which likely affected millions, was down to a \u201csystems upgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n The ban went beyond media uploads since international users were also unable to change their profile information, such as their associated image or name, as Mashable reported<\/a>. That countered moves that users have made in the past in support of the iconic anniversary. The Weibo post announcing the special \u201cupgrade\u201d even had its comment section disabled, leaving global users unable to mark their frustration directly.<\/p>\n Weibo has been hit hard by internet regulators in the past. In 2012, it had its comment section banned<\/a>\u00a0for all users in response to harboring purportedly rumors of a political coup. It has also been a primary target of China\u2019s \u2018real name\u2019 rules<\/a> which aim to reign in online content by making users directly identifiable, and therefore accountable for their content.<\/p>\n Weibo is listed on the Nasdaq and is part owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba. Twitter is the Western tech company that it is most commonly likened to but, unlike its San Francisco-based peer, Weibo has shown an ability to monetize its userbase of 340 million. Live-streaming and sophisticated advertising products have boosted its stock price and investor interest. That, combined a Twitter share price decline following scotched acquisition talks<\/a>\u00a0last year, resulted in Weibo\u2019s marketcap overtaking Twitter\u2019s in February of this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the time of writing, Weibo is valued at $16.33 billion versus a $13.22 billion for Twitter.<\/p>\n Hat tip @jamepslloyd<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Featured Image: Jon Russell<\/a>\/Flickr<\/a> UNDER A CC BY 2.0<\/a> LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN MODIFIED)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/06\/weibo.jpg?w=680\")
June 4 fell this weekend, which, in China, marks the anniversary of the\u00a0Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, one of the most infamous dates in the country’s modern history. The government has never acknowledged nor commented upon the event — which resulted in upwards of 300 deaths as troops\u00a0forcibly suppressed student-led protests. China’s internet regulators are usually hard… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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