46 Comments »China is well known for their aggressive tactics in blocking content online due to heavy censorship policies. Their strategies appear transparent to the end user who simply sees the websites they are trying to access as unavailable. As such it is extremely difficult to detect whether there are actually DNS propagation issues or if Facebook is simply redirecting packets and making it impossible to access a site.
According to the Wall Street Journal though, this issue “affects only a fraction of China’s huge Internet user population.” For those attending the Olympics in Beijing this summer concerns of not accessing Facebook are most likely not substantiated since China claims that “the Internet will be uncensored during the Olympics.” That’s a common strategy used by many communist states: when international visitors come to the country they set things up to make everything appear normal.
Facebook hasn’t complained so far about issues. They instead want to get a piece of the highly competitive Chinese internet market which amounts to a whopping 225 million users, one of the largest in the world. Currently the company has less than half a million people in China according to statistics provided by the company’s SocialAds service. It will be interesting to see if the company runs into any other challenges aside from the highly present competition.
I’m in China and I couldnt access Facebook for a few days now…
Is that China or Facebook itself?
Appears to be the Chinese “Great Firewall” cause i still receive emails from facebook notifications.
Any news about that?
July, 2, 2008
I’m in China and I couldnt access Facebook for a few days now…
Is that China or Facebook itself?
Appears to be the Chinese “Great Firewall” cause i still receive emails from facebook notifications.
Any news about that?
July, 2, 2008
Yup, I’m having lots of problems too…555
Same here–I’ve tried to get in through anonymizers that usually work, and even then I still can’t get past my home page. So, my guess is it’s China. I’m also out near the earthquake-affected area, so that probably doesn’t help much.
Same here–I’ve tried to get in through anonymizers that usually work, and even then I still can’t get past my home page. So, my guess is it’s China. I’m also out near the earthquake-affected area, so that probably doesn’t help much.
same here i seems that i can’t accesss my facebook now too
still get emails tho
same here i seems that i can’t accesss my facebook now too
still get emails tho
Same. I’ve tried everything. Two different cities, four different computers, two different browsers, LAN connections, advanced options. Everything. I can’t get on.
Same. I’ve tried everything. Two different cities, four different computers, two different browsers, LAN connections, advanced options. Everything. I can’t get on.
YEah, I’m in China and there has been no getting through for about a week now. WTF? This is crap. Stupid facebook.
YEah, I’m in China and there has been no getting through for about a week now. WTF? This is crap. Stupid facebook.
I am getting fed up of trying to get on Facebook. I have to try over and over again and keep getting the same unavailable message or it redirects me to Live search. I managed to log on last night but even then I couldnt get further than the first page as it was so slow. No wonder there are only half a million people using Facebook in China.
I am getting fed up of trying to get on Facebook. I have to try over and over again and keep getting the same unavailable message or it redirects me to Live search. I managed to log on last night but even then I couldnt get further than the first page as it was so slow. No wonder there are only half a million people using Facebook in China.
yea that sucks ! can t acces to fb since a week… were is the problem for chinese government ?
yea that sucks ! can t acces to fb since a week… were is the problem for chinese government ?
im in shanghai right now… i have been using facebook for the past few days with no problem, but now it is not even recognized as a valid site… i’m going to keep trying. i can’t live without my facebook.
im in shanghai right now… i have been using facebook for the past few days with no problem, but now it is not even recognized as a valid site… i’m going to keep trying. i can’t live without my facebook.
We have had problems accessing facebook the entire time spent in China. Problems as in, we can’t use facebook!! We arrived in Hong Kong and have travelled up through China to Xi’an and the problem is the same everywhere, we just have given up now. We are going to Beijing but I duoubt it will be any better there!
We have had problems accessing facebook the entire time spent in China. Problems as in, we can’t use facebook!! We arrived in Hong Kong and have travelled up through China to Xi’an and the problem is the same everywhere, we just have given up now. We are going to Beijing but I duoubt it will be any better there!
hey chris!
I just got to Xi’an today too! yeah, no luck getting on facebook, and when I tried to go on in shanghai earlier, it didn’t work either. bummer:(
hey chris!
I just got to Xi’an today too! yeah, no luck getting on facebook, and when I tried to go on in shanghai earlier, it didn’t work either. bummer:(
in beijing, no facebook =(
in beijing, no facebook =(
I’m in Shanghai and here facebook doesn’t work the half of the time you try to connect.. and the other half it’s really slooow.
¿Cuál es el objetivo con esto?
Nobody knows.
I’m in Shanghai and here facebook doesn’t work the half of the time you try to connect.. and the other half it’s really slooow.
¿Cuál es el objetivo con esto?
Nobody knows.
im recieving notifications but cant seem to be getting on to facebook for the past day !! whats going on ??
I had full access to fb here in Beijing until today, and now it gives all the indications that it is blocked; when the Government blocks a site it looks for a long time and then ultimately can’t find it, and that is the problem that I’m having now. What’s the deal, is this because of Xin Jiang??
guangzhou same problem im dying without the only way of contact that i have with my people in america
i am also facing the same problem in Shanghai. How can a great site like facebook allow such things to happen? This is a place where i communicate with most of my friends. I even tried to access facebook using a proxysite but it still doesn’t help. Facebook must do something about it immediately in order not to lose their market
me too, what can i do now?? it was good last week, but now i am so worried. is that forever????
im here at beijing, still no facebook here.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/chinas-facebook-status-blocked.html
Facebook has been blocked in general in China guys, check out news article. Wahh, I want to go back to Australia now! Neeeeed facebook.
Shanghai = no facebook
stiil cannot open facebook here in shanghai
how about the Hong Kong users ? Any access to FB ?
Ya, I have tried accessing Facebook in both Guangzhou and Shanghai, China and unable to access. I think it started only about 2 weeks ago.
Can someone please do something as Facebook is really the greatest way to find old friends …. I just found all my school friends from more than 20 years ago and so eager to be in contact with them again ! I have not got a chance to get all their email addresses.
Now my situation is like … “found at last but lost again …………” !
I don’t know how … by blocking Facebook can change anything on the riots (based on a report that Facebook may be blocked due to the recent riots).
Please someone do something !
i’m from canada now in china traveling and visiting family i need facebook to connect with my friends back home it’s driving me insane i haven’t been able to talk to them miss them So much! Anyone got any updates on it? Is it blocked Perminnate
I am in Nanjing same problem no facebook for 2 weeks now Im here fro US and this is how I communicate with my family as well anyone know how long this will last?
I hope it is not perminant
beijing no fb, but Hong Kong had…reallyyy suck….unbelievable, how can they disconnect ppl like this?
the chinese goverment blocked facebook… well you can use face book if you try this, it works… well, for me ;]
1. go to http://www.fanqiang.org
2. type in http://www.facebook.com
3. press ”continue anyways… ”
4. remember to untick the ”remove scripts” box at the top
i hope this help >< it may take a bit of time to load… but its better than nothing!! goodluck xD~
god im so sorry >< no.3 and no.4 should swap. and one thing to say is you can go to any website that’s block from fanqiang.org, using thesame method :DD
nothing to say but it sucks
I’ve been trying to load facebook since early July and failed. I’m pretty sure it’s due to Chinese internet censorship policy (due to xingjiang crisis), they’d done similar blocking acts in the past for other reasons.
It’s extremely unfortunate to have experienced such inconvenience when friends and families overseas lost contact all of the sudden. It’s interesting to know that facebook is running normally in Hong Kong though…another reason why I don’t think it’s facebook own’s problem. I think it will really help if facebook reacts asap and provides users in China alternative way(s) to retrieve information sent to their facebook account(s), after all, we’re one of their biggest market.
Now even fanqiang.org doesn’t work for FB. Any other ways to connect to FB, except leaving China? This blocking thing does realy suck so very much!!! Has’t Xinjiang already been to “normal” and they just had this big 60th anniversary?! So why FB is still blocked?!
I have just found the Face Book has disabled my account with over 2000 friends and high level gaming applications. I lot of time is now wasted here making friends and building my games. Face Book seems to make rules arbitrarily; and they still own my information, pics, and work even though my account is disabled. This is not democratic but a dictator form of business like all business models. We need a new Face Book for the people of the world whereby someone unknown, and unresponsive, and acting by whims cannot destroy worldwide interactions and speech. This is a new source of impeding Free Speech and controlling the masses. Certainly, the “Powers that Be,” whom own our information and Pics can also monitor them not only for selling to advertisers and making profit, but also to control and manipulate. What militaries are associated with Face Book. And who are Face Books “Friends.” Forgive me, if the reader is not of a free country. But it seems that even Americans are losing freedoms, and the world bows down to oil and money. Now even our friends are controlled and who will regulate the monitors? signed FBS
I think u need a VPN service, but who knows.
In Hong Kong u can use facebook