First China censoring, now Twitter!

After reading a tweet from Scott Drummond on whether twitter should be censored - I thought I'd just observe if it worked or not, rather than test the theory itself. (Side note - check out the new marketing magazine site - it's been recently launched and looking fabulous!).

So next thing I know - Lee Hopkins (yes two mentions in two blog posts - definitely on a roll now!) has written a rather surprised post on seeing text being censored on twitter.

Using the world's most reliable source (Wikipedia of course), I thought I do a bit of research on online censoring - which inevitably lead to China. First they blocked Google, then more recently the dispute with BBC.

Posted on this blog was the question:

So, is this a genuine loosening of web censorship in China or just a temporary PR move in the run up to the Olympics?

If this is suppose to be a PR stunt, I can't see it being fairly effective. There's been no official notice on restoring connections to the BBC and other online sites, nor has their been any release on the matter - it's all been very restricted.

Interestingly, the lead story on ABC's Foreign Correspondent tonight is on "The Great Firewall of China". Perhaps that will provide more insight into the Chinese government's censorship campaigns.

On a separate & final note, while having a scan on this topic in the blogs, one of the more amusing posts was that "Free Tibet" flags were being made in China!