Broadening internet curbs block online Tiananmen museum in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, October 2 : In the latest regression for Internet freedom, access to an online museum commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre appeared to be blocked in Hong Kong, a media report said on Thursday.
The website, 8964museum.com, which chronicles the massacre in timelines and other descriptions, was inaccessible in the city without a virtual private network on Thursday but reachable from other parts of the world. The museum's physical space closed earlier this year; police also raided it a few weeks ago.
The move came as Hong Kong moves to scrub official remembrance of June 4, 1989, when hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were killed in Beijing.
Hong Kong had been a known place for commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre and various vigils were organised in the territory.
But an annual vigil held peacefully for decades has now been banned and the activists involved jailed. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which wants accountability for the Tiananmen crackdown, recently voted to disband amid a national security probe into its leaders. First came political crimes. Now, a digital crackdown descends on Hong Kong, according to The Washington Post.
With such steps, Beijing has been attempting to erase the memory of the Tiananmen massacre. The regime is using national security law to detain and silence government critics, activists and civil society groups. But experts believe that the curb on the internet could have wider ramifications for foreign companies in Hong Kong.
An independent team operates the online museum but obtained funds in a 2020 crowdfunding event by the Hong Kong Alliance. With smooth animation and poetry excerpts that lead the user experience, the site preserves and displays files, images, oral history and relics about Tiananmen "perpetually," according to its description, said The Washington Post.