China censors Tiananmen Square massacre related words on Internet ahead of anniversary

China has censored words such as 'today' as an Internet search item 24 years after the Chinese government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.

The words that have been censored on Sina Weibo, the country's most popular microblog, include 'tomorrow'," 'that year', 'special day' ahead of the anniversary of the massacre.

According to the Guardian, they have also censored many number combinations that could refer to 4 June 1989, such as 6-4, 64, 63+1, 65-1, and 35 (shorthand for May 35th), the Guardian reports.

Chinese Communist party authorities, fearing a threat to their legitimacy, forbid open discussion of the so-called June 4th incident in the country's media and on its Internet.

Yet Internet users have reacted by using ever-more oblique references to commemorate the tragedy, with many posting pictures, which can often elude automatic detection: a girl with her hand over her mouth; a Lego man facing down three green Lego tanks; the iconic "tank man" picture with its tanks photoshopped into four giant rubber ducks, a reference to a well-known art installation in Hong Kong's Victoria harbour, the report said.

Many prominent intellectuals and celebrities on Sina Weibo have simply taken the day off from posting in an act of quiet protest, it added.