By Chris Chang, posted Mar 20, 2012 at 3:36 PM, 2,949 views,

China Bans The Word “Ferrari” From Online Searches

Reports are coming in of a fatal crash in Beijing involving a Ferrari crashed into a bridge, killing the driver, and severely injuring two female passengers. Apparently the crash has led to widespread speculation over the identity of the driver when searches for the word “Ferrari” were suddenly blocked on Chinese social media sites. So why on Earth is the Chinese government censoring the word “Ferrari” from Internet search?

According to a report from NTD, China’s biggest Internet portals are censoring the report of the car crash because the driver is the illegitimate son of one of China’s leading Communist Party members. And a report from The Global Times says that Sina Weibo, the Chinese alternative to Twitter that operates within the government’s notorious firewall, has deleted all microblog posts which mentioned the accident, and blocked online searches of the word ‘Ferrari.’ A local resident told The Global Times that there is something fishy about the Chinese censors restricting access to the story,

“They make such great efforts to wipe out the information, and it just proves that this young man must have a special background, maybe he’s a high-ranking official’s son,”

Yeah, it’s weird to see the Chinese government trying to hush up the story, going so far as to ban the word “Ferrari” from online searches. What’s more, almost all online information about the crash had been deleted overnight. Meanwhile, Beijing Public Security Bureau refused to give any information about the crash, such as the cause of the accident and the progress of their investigation. Below are some pictures of the fatal crash.

The photos above show the Ferrari has been left in two parts. And take note, since the Ferrari is a two-person car, why on Earth are we seeing three injuries? Could the driver be a playboy who was transporting two girls in his Ferrari? Well, whatever the truth is, the fact so far is that the internet searching of the ‘Ferrari’ word has been banned in China for no reasons. You may not know, traffic accidents involving luxury cars have their own particular lore in China, especially in Beijing, where many politicians, party princelings and their children drive (or are driven in) high-end sedans and S.U.V.’s.

Source: Beijing Evening News via Global Times
p.s. Here’s a series of sensitive words that has been censored by the Chinese government.