China has recently blocked access to several social websites in an effort to preemptively strike against perceived opportunities to congregate and collaborate on the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots. The anniversary is on June 4th and Chinese authorities have cut access to sites like Twitter, Flickr, Live, Bing (just came out and it is already being blocked), and YouTube.

There are so many comments that can be made from a story like this, but none are likely productive. It is too bad the Chinese people are not allowed to have a voice or hear other voices. How thankful should the rest of us feel? It makes it tough to complain when your IT department cuts access to sites, because most of us can just go home and get our fix. Not so everywhere folks.