维勒 (Friedrich Wöhler or Villar-Perosa machine gun / wéilēi) are two characters often found in phonetic transliterations of Western words and names. For instance, it makes up the last name of the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler (弗里德里希·维勒) as well as part of Colombian golfer Camilo Villegas’ last name (维勒加斯).
Why it is blocked: However, it’s unlikely that the characters are blocked because of either person’s contributions to science or sport (though Villegas was involved in a rather racy—by Chinese standards at least—photo shoot for ESPN Magazine’s ”Body Issue”). More plausibly, it may be because 维勒 represents 维勒·帕洛沙—the Villar-Perosa submachine gun. However, though this would be in keeping with China’s censorship of weapons on Weibo, the Villar-Perosa is almost always referred to by its full name even in Chinese, making it strange to block just 维勒 if the intention was to control references to the weapon (which are few: just two at last count, with one blocked—see the message at the bottom). The gun was never widely used in China or outside of WWI—though innovative, apparently it was a terribly ineffective gun. So the reason for why 维勒 is blocked is obscure.
For fun: The original service manual for how to maintain a Villar-Perosa submachine gun as well as an English promotional brochure for the weapon.
