International Living, Marriage & Travel

When I went on a business trip to China a year ago, I was surprised to know that Facebook is banned over there and there's no way to access it. I stayed there for 4 days without any means to post my photos and updates or to check on my pages and group sites. Later on I found out that Facebook was used as a means of communication by dissidents in the pro democracy rally's that resulted into deadly riots and crackdowns decades ago. It was then banned by the Chinese Government and the ban was never lifted up to now. So if you want to take a rest from Facebook then going to China for a vacation is a good way to go.

Mainland China is a communist state and free speech, like the use of social media , is not allowed. Facebook is therefore not allowed. Also, there are so many anti china sentiments in facebook and the chinese governmant doesn't want that to reach the mainland citizens, especially the pro democracy groups.

I recently heard about this issue of China banning Facebook and I must confess that it's not a good thing at all for the social media community to have Facebook being locked out of over 1 billion people people of China. There was a time when it was Indian and Whatspp, now it's China and Facebook.

There is no freedom of expression and speech in a socialist/communist state like China. What they have there is propaganda which is only for state use against the enemies of their communist state. Propaganda is niether true nor false as long as it suit the state goals or whims. Facebook as coming from the US is a free medium of exchange for various ideas and that includes anti-communist/socialist sentiments that may run against Communist china's propaganda.

I recently met someone online from China. I was talking to her on Wechat and asked her if she had a Facebook account so I could friend her. She said that she didn't...which I thought was odd. I thought that Facebook was everywhere. But, now I know the reason why she doesn't have a Facebook account.

China is a communist country, so I'm not surprised at the prohibition of the government to ban Facebook. I'm lucky to live in the Philippines, we are a free country.

We are seeing the strength of China in its strict policy against the western social media like Facebook and Google. I am not pro China but I admire their style of having their own and getting the benefit. Think how much money Facebook would earn from the Chinese that China is now earning that kind of money.

China did not ban Facebook just because dissidents were using Facebook, China banned Facebook and Google mainly for money. If Facebook and Google would not have been banned WeChat and Baidu would not be one of the world's largest social media and search engines, respectively. Another reason is to stop the locals from accessing International News.