Users of Facebook Inc.’s (FB) Instagram reported the photo-sharing service was inaccessible in China today, as the government sought to limit news of pro-democracy protesters clashing with police in Hong Kong.
Greatfire.org, a group that monitors Internet restrictions, said its tests showed Instagram’s website was blocked. The service went down early, said Frank Yu, the chief executive of Beijing-based online gaming company Kwestr. He described himself as a regular user of the service who also runs an forum of other users.
“I post an image or two in the morning and 3-4 during the day but now its blocked,” Yu wrote in an e-mail. “I got two off though this morning.”
With Facebook’s own service blocked in China, Instagram was one of the few overseas social-media apps that remained available on the mainland. More popular photo sharing services such as that of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700)’s WeChat service are already tightly controlled, while social apps from Line Corp. and Kakao Corp. also face restrictions. Twitter, Yahoo! Inc.’s Flickr and YouTube are inaccessible as well.
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