Thread by @daithaigilbert

It is 30 years since the Tiananmen Square massacr and the Chinese government’s censorship campaign has been so successful, it is now almost impossible for Chinese people to mark the occasion online 1/6 news.vice.com/en_us/article/… #Tiananmen30

Activists have been forced to use increasing obscure images, memes and coded references to avoid China’s censorship machine — all tracked by Dr. Kingwa Fu @JMSCHKU 2/6 news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

But without any reference points these efforts are lost on young people. "You need some inspiration from the past to motivate you to pursue a higher goal, but young people don't have the references,” @hrw’s China expert @Yaqiu said. 3/6 news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

The Tiananmen Square massacre was the genesis for the Great Firewall, as Beijing saw how the internet could be a tool to organise protests and disseminate information, @jgriffiths said 4/6 news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

According to @CHRDnet, 27 people have been detained, questioned or disappeared since the beginning of May in relation to the crackdown on #Tiananmen30 — but as @FrancesEveCHRD says, this is "likely just a drop in the bucket" 5/6 news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

“The result is a collective amnesia,” @peterwsinger says. “An entire generation not just engineered to be ignorant of key moments in the past, but with nowhere to go to search out more information, if they ever do become aware of it.” 6/6 news.vice.com/en_us/article/…