Shenzhen is only a 14-minute train ride away from Hong Kong but a world apart when it comes to the flow of information. When images of the violent protests in the former British colony began to filter through on Chinese social media, 24-year-old web designer Stephanie asked her friend who studies in the US to send her detailed press reports.

By late afternoon, she and her colleagues were watching videos of confrontations between young demonstrators and the Hong Kong police being uploaded on to YouTube at their company, one of China’s big technology groups that provides unfiltered internet access to its employees.

“Everyone glanced at the videos. No one was particularly interested after they got the gist of what was going on,” said Stephanie, who only spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Some complained it would be inconvenient if they couldn’t go shopping in Hong Kong for a while.”