Twenty four years after the Chinese government’s bloody crackdown on activists in Tiananmen Square, the word “today” is now part of a long list of search terms that have been banned on Sina Weibo, the country’s most popular social media site, The Guardian reports.

Other phrases, like “special day,” “tomorrow” or “that year,” or any numerical combinations that could refer to June 4, 1989, are also off-limits, The Guardian reports.

Chinese Communist party authorities forbid open discussion of the so-called “June 4th incident,” where troops opened fire on unarmed protesters, so internet users have reacted by masking their protests even more, The Guardian reports.

Many pro-democracy protesters embed their messages in photos, in hopes to elude automatic detection, for example, “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 Guardian reports.

By Tuesday afternoon, the term “big yellow duck” had also been blocked by Chinese censors.

The Chinese government considers the Tiananmen protest a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” that needed to be quelled in order to maintain social stability.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.