News articles , social media posts and images about Hong Kong 's pro-democracy protests are being heavily censored behind China notorious firewall . Chinese state-run news outlets have largely ignored the pro-democracy protests except for the same Xinhua story in which the Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung denounced the demonstrations as `` unlawful . '' Leung : Raw emotion 'will get us nowhere ' In Hong Kong , residents have poured into the streets to defy Beijing 's vision for its political future in the midst of its longest series of political protests since the 1997 handover . Their goal is to pressure China into giving the former British colony full universal suffrage . Dozens have been reported injured by authorities . On the social media front , Instagram has been blocked in China since Sunday . Users can not view images and a message reads on the site : `` Ca n't refresh feed . '' China observers noted that while the app ca n't be accessed in China for most , the country 's First Lady Peng Liyuan 's official Instagram account posted a picture of her and her husband , China 's President Xi Jinping , on Monday . The photo app has been viewed as a relatively non-political social media platform , said King-wa Fu , an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong . `` In the past two days , we can see a lot of people holding phones and taking pictures of different ( Hong Kong protest ) scenes on Instagram , Facebook and sharing it around , '' he said . `` It 's a huge amount of pictures posted in a short period of time . '' That may have led to the blocking of the photo-sharing app , Fu said . The Chinese government maintains strict controls over what can be seen on the Internet and social media . This firewall extends to Facebook , Twitter and YouTube , and Google is rarely accessible . Hong Kong does not fall under the same restrictions . China 's massively popular microblogging site , Sina Weibo is being censored at the highest rate this year with `` Hong Kong '' as the most commonly deleted term , according to Weiboscope , a Hong Kong University effort that monitors deleted posts . About 152 out of 10,000 Weibo posts were blocked , said Fu , who also works on Weiboscope . Why China censors Hong Kong demonstrations . Photos of police confronting young pro-democracy protesters are sensitive in China , because it 's a reminder of Tiananamen Square , in which Chinese authorities cracked down on student protesters on June 4 , 1989 , Fu said . `` If you look at the political agenda of protests in Hong Kong , they have the same objectives . They 're calling for democracy in Hong Kong and political reform . These are two main sensitive topics in China . This is the topic they do n't want the Chinese citizens to widely discuss , '' he said . But China can not completely black out any knowledge of the Hong Kong protests , especially with 40 million mainland arrivals to the special administrative region every year . Chinese authorities can not control whether its citizens know about pro-democracy Hong Kong protests , but they can shut down `` autonomous communication space '' where public discussions can take place in China , said Xiao Qiang , an adjunct professor for the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley . `` That 's what they 're trying to repress , '' he said . `` The Chinese government fears that the kinds of protest and exercise of rights demanding greater political freedom will be contagious and trigger something in China , '' he said . `` That 's what they fear the most . '' What you can see in China . The protest intensified Sunday when Hong Kong police unleashed tear gas on demonstrators . But there was no mention of it on the evening Chinese state-run CCTV news . On Monday morning , the homepage of China 's major portals such as Sina , Sohu , 163 and China 's state-run news agency Xinhua did not mention the events either . Searches on China 's top search engine sites such as Baidu and Sogou for the terms `` Hong Kong protest '' or even `` Hong Kong students '' yielded irrelevant results such as stories showing a a blissful image of Hong Kong residents picnicking on the grass or how Hong Kong is welcoming tourists from the mainland during the national holiday week . When relevant results appeared on the Chinese search engines , the articles contained a distinctively pro-China slant and even surfaced a month-old article about a small pro-Beijing counter-protest in Hong Kong . Content that was more sympathetic to Hong Kong protesters had been removed with messages reading : `` In accordance with relevant laws , regulations and policies , search results could not be displayed . ''
China 's news and social media are stripped of discussions on Hong Kong protests . China fears discussion of political rights , dissent and civil disobedience , observers say . Comment: