p2pnet news view P2P:- According to a Harvard report, Twitter may not be all it’s said up to be. But there’s no question it’s a communications force to be reckoned with.

Even the US Army says so.

And Twitter’s immense popularity in turn means countries such as China, home of the Green Dam of censorship, feel threatened.

“On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen killings, social networking sites such as Twitter and the photo-sharing site Flickr were blocked in China in an attempt by the government to prevent online discussion on the subject,” says the BBC.

But that didn’t stop Chinese twitterers from tweeting, it says.

In fact, they’ve contributed, “to Tiananmen becoming one of Twitter’s most discussed topics during the anniversary,” says the story, going on »»»

Those who are not old enough to have personal memories of 1989 forwarded link to articles in foreign media or simply re-tweeted other people’s posts.

Links to photos of plain-clothes policemen blocking the lenses of foreign journalists with their umbrellas was a popular tweet.

Many tweets on unrelated topics carried the subject (hashtag) Tiananmen. As one user pointed out, people typed Tiananmen on every single post, so the topic is within the 10 most popular ones on Twitter.

“Besides the Tiananmen anniversary itself, what seemed to be most important to Chinese twitterers was the blocking of sites. Advice on how to access Twitter – by using a proxy, VPN (virtual private network) or Hotspot shield – spread around quickly,” says the story, adding:

“While Twitter got blocked, Facebook remained accessible. There, fans of Tank Man … were free to remember those who took part and the victims of the crackdown.”

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Harvard report – Is Twitter all it`s tweeted to be?, June 9, 2009
US Army – US Army Twitters in Afghanistan, June 4, 2009
Green Dam of censorship – Green Dam of China censor software, June 8, 2009
BBC – Twitterers defy China’s firewall, June 10, 2009
Tank Man – Tiananmen Square massacre, 20 years on, June 5, 2009