Blocked In Hong Kong

Along with Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, Instagram has been blocked by China’s government’s firewall. Protests broke out last week with students posting riots on Instagram. The protests were caused by people trying to be able to elect their own mayor. The government tried picking Hong Kong’s own mayor. After students posted things about the riots on Instagram, the site was blocked. You could see them in mainland China until Sunday. There are websites like Blocked in China.net where you can view what is blocked on the internet in what part(s) of mainland China. Right now Instagram is blocked in every part of mainland China. People not living in mainland China have not reported any social media censorship. However, there is a slow cellular Internet connection which is not unusual for anywhere that there are protests. Many people in Hong Kong are now using the FireChat app which does not need an Internet connection to text and send pictures to people. FireChat was downloaded 100,000 times in Hong Kong alone between Sunday and Monday.

I was interested in this story because it involves rebellions which I find interesting. I like that the community of Hong Kong is fighting for freedom. I also have a friend who isn’t in this district whose family came from Hong Kong so I like to hear about it.

For some more info, please take a look at this link: http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/29/technology/instagram-blocked-china/index.html