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Twitter snuffs 'emoticon' candles

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Amy Nip

There may have been plenty of candles in Victoria Park last night but there were none on a mainland website - not even on a birthday cake.

Sina Microblog, a mainland version of Twitter, removed a candle and a cake from the array of icons for users to attach to posts as 'emoticons'. It also removed a rose, presumably because of its connotation with bereavement.

The icons have been missing since Thursday night, eve of the June 4 commemoration.

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Pinky Wong Pik-yiu, 23, said the website had overreacted, expressing amazement that the birthday cake had also gone. 'Sure there's a candle on the cake. But that's a birthday cake!'

Another blogger, 'lanrenfei', tweeted about the inconvenience after the removal of flowers and candles: 'Apart from sending a shy smiling face, how can I please pretty girls?'

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Meanwhile, Microblog users invented creative tweets that could refer to June 4 while slipping past mainland censorship. 'I paid 60 dollars for a meal and added four dollars of tips,' one posted. Another said he paid HK$100 for a HK$60 dish and got HK$40 change.

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