Bad news for our tech-obsessed friends in Beijing: According to the LA Times , Foursquare has been banned in China after users used the service to “check in” at Tiananmen Square on Friday (the 21st anniversary of the infamous massacre-that-must-not-be-named) and left “sensitive comments” as tips. As Foursquare is often linked up to both Facebook and Twitter accounts, posting memorializing the tragic event went viral, and censors were quick to lay the smack down.
Techblog86 reports that those who did check-in before the country-wide block lucked out: “You automatically got the Swarm badge and the Player Please! badge. As they say, to every cloud there’s always a silver lining.” It should be noted that last year the Chinese government blocked access to Twitter, Flickr, and Hotmail in the days leading up to the anniversary, so there’s a chance the ban is only temporary.
On a completely different note, also happening in China right now: painting pet dogs to look like other animals.