Instagram Goes Dark in China During Democracy Protests

Instagram logoPhoto-sharing app Instagram has experienced multiple outages in mainland China, supposedly linked to democracy protests occurring in Hong Kong.

Several websites dedicated to monitoring Internet censorship in China have reported the outages, with some suggesting that Facebook access has also become limited in certain areas.

Reporters from numerous press outlets have also reported intermittent outages, with some unable to load new photos, and others unable to access the app outright.

The outages coincide with pro-democracy protests taking place in Hong Kong, where students and other protestors have clashed with police following Beijings decision to impose limits on how Hong Kong elects its leader. Users have shared almost 10,000 pictures related to the protests on Instagram, using the hashtag #occupycentral.

The outages echo similar problems faced during protests in Hong Kong earlier in the year, when messaging apps Line and KakaoTalk, as well as Microsofts OneDrive and Flickr all suffered outages for several days.