Obama Google+ page flooded with Chinese human rights pleas

Hundreds of Chinese have flooded US President Barack Obama’s Google+ page, apparently taking advantage of a glitch in China’s censorship system to post about human rights and green cards.

Google+ — the US internet giant’s social networking site — has been unavailable in China since it was launched last year, apparently blocked by the nation’s strict censorship system, dubbed “the Great Firewall of China”.

But over the past few days, Chinese internet users say they have unexpectedly managed to get onto the site, and have decided to concentrate their presence on Obama’s page.

“Many people don’t understand the meaning why all Chinese are coming here. We envy American people their democracy and freedom!” one poster said in English under Obama’s latest message about his campaign’s bumper stickers.

The comments centre on freedom of expression and human rights, as well as more mundane issues such as how to get US green cards.

“We are not barbaric people, we are just suppressed,” one internet user wrote, while others called on the US president to “come and liberate China”.

It is hard to prove if all those commenting are from China, but most write in simplified Chinese characters — used in the mainland as opposed to Hong Kong — and expressions are similar to those found on the nation’s microblogs. It is also difficult to determine what glitch in the Firewall they are taking advantage of.

Some posters urged Obama to help free activists such as blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who is currently under house arrest, and Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner.

As part of its censorship system, China blocks most content it considers politically sensitive. Twitter and Facebook were made unavailable in China in 2009, apparently over official concerns that people had instigated deadly ethnic riots in Xinjiang using the sites.