China blocks Washington Post, Guardian websites: report

Websites for The Washington Post and the Guardian are now reportedly blocked in China, as Beijing tightens restrictions under its  “Great Firewall” censorship program.

The Washington Post reports the two news sites were among the last major English-language outlets that had not been blocked and were still regularly accessible without special software to get around the firewall.

{mosads}The move comes as China clamps down on the internet even more in the wake of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Keywords or pictures on social media platform WeChat related to the Tiananmen massacre were prohibited, according to the Post, which added that every language edition of Wikipedia was fully banned in China last month.

Other news outlets such as Bloomberg, The New York Times, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal have reportedly been blocked for years.

The Post added that internet censors in China rarely make clear their reasoning behind imposing new bans.

Since 2013, China has reportedly ramped up its efforts to censor foreign websites, with more than 10,000 web domains now blocked.