In 2009, the Chinese authorities blocked access to the Berlin Twitter Wall from within China following a flood of tweets calling for an end to internet censorship, writes Judith Bruhn.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH and construktiv GmbH initiated and developed the Berlin Twitter Wall. From 20 October until 15 November 2009, users from across the world were invited to share their thoughts on the fall of the wall, their hopes for the future, and particularly their views on which walls still had to fall.
Three days after the launch, the first Chinese tweet appeared, calling for the fall of the “Great Firewall”, as the Chinese authorities’ control and blocking of the internet has been dubbed. What followed was a flood of tweets from China, demanding the end of internet censorship. “The fate of a wall is to be climbed and eventually be torn down, whether tangible or intangible, there are no exceptions!”, the user suddenlight wrote on 25 October 2009. Around 40% of the total number of tweets, which exceeded 7,500, on the Berlin Twitter Wall were in Chinese. Three days later, the Chinese authorities blocked the Berlin Twitter Wall to prevent access from inside China.