Twitter has apologised for suspending a number of accounts critical of China, days before the politically sensitive 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The apology came after activists said hundreds of Twitter accounts critical of Communist Party -- from "inside and outside" China -- were suspended last week.

Despite being blocked in China, Twitter and other overseas social media sites have long been used by activists and government critics to address subjects that are censored on domestic forums.

But in this case, Twitter said Saturday that Chinese authorities had not reported the accounts or asked for their suspension.

Instead, the firm said they were caught up in an ongoing effort to clear up accounts "engaging in various forms of platform manipulation, including spam and other inauthentic" behaviour.

Among the blocked accounts were some belonging to dissident writers and an activist who has helped document the disappearance of Uighurs -- a Turkic-speaking minority in China's restive Xinjiang region, said Cao Yuexin, founder of human rights site China Change.

US Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that the platform had become a "Chinese govt censor".

"Sometimes our routine actions catch false positives or we make errors," Twitter said.

"We apologize. We're working today to ensure we overturn any errors but that we remain vigilant in enforcing our rules for those who violate them."

But activists said Sunday that the social media giant owed users a fuller explanation of what happened.

Discussions of the 1989 pro-democracy protests and its military suppression that led to hundreds of deaths are taboo in China.

China's army of online censors have scrubbed clean Chinese social media, removing articles, memes, hashtags or photos alluding to the crackdown ahead of its 30 anniversary on June 4.

All language versions of Wikipedia -- whose pages include details about the Tiananmen crackdown -- were blocked from the Chinese internet weeks ago.

Exiled Tiananmen dissident barred from Hong Kong
Hong Kong (AFP) June 2, 2019 - A Tiananmen Square protest leader was barred from entering Hong Kong on Sunday after travelling to the city for a candlelight vigil marking the crackdown's 30th anniversary, organisers of the memorial said.

Other former student leaders from the 1989 protests have been blocked from entering the city before, according to local media reports, but a growing list of overseas activists and politicians have been refused passage into the semi-autonomous Chinese city in recent years.

Feng Congde, a former student from the elite Peking University now living in San Francisco, landed in Hong Kong ahead of the annual memorial commemorating victims of the bloody 1989 crackdown.

The 53-year-old was stopped by immigration officers and eventually put back on a plane, said Richard Tsoi, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance which organises the vigil.

Feng said he had travel documents allowing him to enter Hong Kong legally, according to text messages sent to Tsoi and shared with AFP.

Hong Kong "obeys the Chinese Communist Party", Feng wrote in the messages.

"At a time when Hong Kong people are worried about human rights and freedoms violations, (this incident) only makes them more averse to the government," Tsoi told AFP.

The Immigration Department declined to comment on the case but said it makes each decision "in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong and prevailing immigration policies".

Feng had travelled from Tokyo, where he attended other Tiananmen memorials, and is due to return to the Japanese capital again on Sunday evening.

Hong Kong remains the only territory on Chinese soil where crowds are allowed to gather in public to commemorate the bloody Tiananmen crackdown.

The city enjoys freedom of speech and assembly rights unseen on the Chinese mainland under a 50-year handover agreement between former colonial power Britain and China.

Activists fear those liberties are being eroded as Beijing flexes its muscles and stamps down on dissent.

Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Family who helped Snowden asks Canada for asylum
Montreal (AFP) May 29, 2019
A lawyer for a family who sheltered fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden asked Canada on Wednesday to take them in as refugees, saying they were being persecuted in Hong Kong. Guillaume Cliche-Rivard of the non-governmental group For the Refugees, which in March sponsored two other Snowden "Guardian Angels," Philippine national Vanessa Rodel and her seven-year-old daughter Keana, made the plea on "humanitarian grounds" at a press conference. He noted growing concerns about civil rights ... read more