Chinese censors and opponents of the protests sweeping Hong Kong are engaging in a cat-and-mouse game with demonstrators and commentators in a bid to stop news of the unrest spreading online and, in particular, reaching the mainland.
Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters have braved police tear gas to make their views known.
Spreading the word over Western and Chinese social networks is a lot safer, but it is becoming increasingly difficult as mobile phone networks are disrupted and concerns about possible surveillance grow.
The intervention is beyond what is normal for the usually free-talking Hong Kong, even as people are used to Chinese censors scrubbing the Internet in the mainland when mass demonstrations erupt.
On Sunday, users reported that Facebook Inc's photo sharing app Instagram was inaccessible on China's mainland.
Chinese websites, including Baidu Inc's search engine and the Twitter-like Weibo Corp microblog, have set about deleting references to the Hong Kong demonstrations.
Others have reported messages on Tencent Holdings Ltd's hugely popular WeChat messaging app being removed.
"I think it is still quite safe except WeChat, which is China," said Oscar, a 21-year-old student at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University, who uses Facebook and WhatsApp to communicate and plan with other protesters.
"It depends on your phone, because some China (brand) phones, they can detect your messages," he said.
Others in Hong Kong were still using WeChat, but had noted signs of censorship.
"WeChat is not blocked, I think some stuff is being deleted," said Jennie, who, after growing up in mainland China and being educated in the United States, now runs a Hong Kong-based charity.
"I forwarded an article (on Hong Kong) on today and it was deleted. The mainland should think it's good people are expressing ideas on behalf of the mainland government, but they even deleted that. Basically they're preventing the opportunity
for dialogue, which if you think about it is quite scary."
Read: News in Hindi and Newspaper
Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters have braved police tear gas to make their views known.
Spreading the word over Western and Chinese social networks is a lot safer, but it is becoming increasingly difficult as mobile phone networks are disrupted and concerns about possible surveillance grow.
The intervention is beyond what is normal for the usually free-talking Hong Kong, even as people are used to Chinese censors scrubbing the Internet in the mainland when mass demonstrations erupt.
On Sunday, users reported that Facebook Inc's photo sharing app Instagram was inaccessible on China's mainland.
Chinese websites, including Baidu Inc's search engine and the Twitter-like Weibo Corp microblog, have set about deleting references to the Hong Kong demonstrations.
Others have reported messages on Tencent Holdings Ltd's hugely popular WeChat messaging app being removed.
"I think it is still quite safe except WeChat, which is China," said Oscar, a 21-year-old student at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University, who uses Facebook and WhatsApp to communicate and plan with other protesters.
"It depends on your phone, because some China (brand) phones, they can detect your messages," he said.
Others in Hong Kong were still using WeChat, but had noted signs of censorship.
"WeChat is not blocked, I think some stuff is being deleted," said Jennie, who, after growing up in mainland China and being educated in the United States, now runs a Hong Kong-based charity.
"I forwarded an article (on Hong Kong) on today and it was deleted. The mainland should think it's good people are expressing ideas on behalf of the mainland government, but they even deleted that. Basically they're preventing the opportunity
for dialogue, which if you think about it is quite scary."
Read: News in Hindi and Newspaper
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