China Microblog search blocks for Hillary Clinton

A microblog top in China has blocked searches for Chinese words "Hillary Clinton" and "Hillary", just a day after the United States Secretary of State gave a speech urging Governments to end Internet censorship.

Sina microblog of China, a service similar to Twitter, seemed to be blocking the terms on Thursday morning. "In accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results of your search did not show," said the answer on the microblogging site. In China, Government censors strength normally local Web sites to remove the politically sensitive content.

Clinton gave a speech earlier this week, saying that countries like China should address the economic and social costs in the long term that would lead to civil unrest if continued their Internet censorship.

The u.s. Embassy in Beijing has tried to start discussions about Chinese speech using microblogs. But it seems that the seats were taken quickly by Chinese Government censors.

The Embassy of which a declaration made by the United States ' Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who said, "we are disappointed that some Chinese Web sites have decided to remove the discussion of the speech by Secretary Clinton's Internet freedom from their sites. It is ironic that the Chinese are blocking an online debate on freedom of the Internet ".

The Hillary-censor comes just weeks after Sina and other microblogs in China also began to censor searches for the word "China" Egypt "after anti-Government protests in Middle Eastern country.

China has been restrictive about news and information published on this politically sensitive, in order to prevent the same kind of unrest in the country, said Sir Phelim Kine, a researcher from Asia for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"We are working diligently to ensure that new types of technology are castrated and controlled," Kine said. "The Chinese Government is keeping a tight lid game on the control and to maintain a facade of harmony, believing that this will be translated and continue that is long-term control".

China currently has the largest Internet population in the world, to 457 million users. But the country has invested in censoring the Web for politically sensitive content and sometimes even blocking entire sites. Facebook and Twitter were either blocked by the Chinese Government in 2009 after ethnic clashes broke out in western Xinjiang region of China. Sites are blocked.

In November, Sina reported that the microblogging service has got more than 50 million users. The user base is expected to reach 100 million users in the first half of 2011.

Sina did not respond immediately to requests for comment.