While not confirmed, news has been trickling out from Facebook users in China that they were not able to access their data.
A clear picture has yet to be painted but Facebook is close to confirming the phenomenon. “We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in China are having difficulty getting access to Facebook,”
Representatives from the social network reportedly told CIO News. “We have not made any changes to our site that would create access problems and are looking into the situation.”
China-based users are mostly expats from Europe and the United States, and a lot of them have spoken out on Twitter that access to Facebook is indeed blocked.
China has had a long history of content censorship on the web, but most internet giants (like Yahoo and Google) have allowed this censorship, giving them more leeway for bringing their content to China-based users. Some of the reports seem to be pointing to Facebook’s aversion to this kind of censorship as the root of the issue. As of writing, none of the major players in the issue have made solid confirmations.
Via [CNET]
after reading this,i checked my account in facebook,still i got in,so it's not true,i'm in Shenzhen of China.
I've been trying to get in for a few days now and can only occasionally log on, and then only for a few minutes. Usually get kicked off when I try to navigate to different pages. I'm in Chengdu, China. Even going through anonymizers doeesn't work anymore because I either can't get past my home page on facebook, or the anonymizer is too busy with other users with the same problem!
This is 100% true. I cannot log on at my apt here, but the internet at my work lets me log on fine… not sure why. very very annoying!!!
by the way, 30 seconds after posting my last message, the window I had open with the blocked FB page suddenly was on the FB homepage, working perfectly. VERY interesting. How DO they find the time to scan so much?? its blowing my mind
Just about everything is blocked in my city in China. It is almost impossible to access anything. The best time to go online is about 3 am but that is no guarnatee. I also have more success at work it would seem our apartments have been targeted
Your buidling probably shares lines with the entire housing complex and surrounding complexes. During the day all the businesses housed out of there have to share the same internet. Thats why at night it seems to work a bit faster I reckon….
Yes, just tried to logon to facebook but nothings happening, other than my internet page comes to a complete standstill……
How bad is that????
I have unfiltered access to any site from China using http://www.Freedur.com. This little proxy rocks. They offer free trial. Try it, you’ll like it.
Its true July 7th facebook is block totally, I was able to get into it at the office…but couldnt get on at the office on a personal PC or at home and I have the highest speed internet. Too bad I didn't think pics of my friends and dogs were a threat to National security OH WELL MY BAD!
I'm visiting China for a couple weeks, and for the first time facebook was blocked. It's been fine for the past 10 days or so, then all of a sudden it won't work today. even proxy sites that work aren't really doing much, since they won't let you post or share anything.
Reasonly I've travel across China inlcuded Shanghai, Zhejiang province w/o problem accessing facebook.
Just landed in Wuzhou found out I'm block from facebook, helpless
I'm in Guangzhou, China and facebook is blocked.
Actually its been blocked, no access to fb anywhere in shanghai, not even with the use of proxy sites. Such a big blow to event promoters.
Why did China blocks facebook??? Why? I wanna go in my account!I still have photos inside!!!
THIS IZ THE MOST FUCKKKINRETARDED SHIT EVA!!
)….that iz, if u can go on fb *sobb*
so lyk rite now im in xi'an and in a hotel and BE4 i CUD go on fb!! it wuz just a lil slow but i cud still comment and stuf…but i went 4 2 nitez 2 this mountain place and wen i got bakk I CANT GO ON FB!!
i cant even go on the website! i tried getting 2 it from the notificationz it sent me thru email, thru bookmarks, by typing the url…..nuthin worked. the site just wouldnt load. and no, the internet iz fine, seeing how i can navigate ezly to udder sitez, lyk this one
AND IT ESPECIALLY SUXX cuz all my friendz r lyk *comment comment comment* and im the kind of person who just cant stand NOT havin the last wurd…lyk i c sum1 comment i just HAV 2 comment…yea im weirdd i knoz….so it iz quite frustrating if i can sayy so myselff
o btw sowwy 4 cursing
and sowwy 4 how long this iz >< i just hav nuthin better 2 do
btw july 8th 2dayy
will the block be lifted soon? i HOPE!!!
and ALSOOO my name happenz 2 be my fb name 2 so friend me if u want!!
O LOL THEY ### THE CURSEZ XDD im awesummm
In Suzhou it was working perfectly for my past seven months until 7 July circa 20:00…
I am using that freedur proxy and works fine – even Youtube!
Few days ago, I was in Beijing, Facebook was fine, but I went to the shore @ Hebei, and I'm in a hotel, facebook is blocked. This is SO annoying!
i just want to log in to fb and harvests my crops in farmtown!!!!!waaahhhh i hope fb will be unblocked b4 my crops gone to waste!!! and also i miss my friends…..huhuhu
Yep, Facebook cannot be accessed here in Guangzhou.
The censorship of these internet giants exposes only the tip of the Chinese government's oppressive and paranoid iceberg.
LETS PROTEST AGAINST THIS HOMO GOVERNMENT!
Whos coming with me????
how can facebook work in china. i cant go through facebook these days, so mad.pls help me!
Facebook is blocked in Beijing since Tuesday, July 7th. Obviously not all regions in China are blocked.
Going through a proxy still works though but as always quite slow.
Anyway. Sucks…
Facebook, youtube, VEOH, twitter and anything with blog in the title is blocked. It's annoying for expats who use this as a primary way to keep contact with relatives back home. It's pointless too. The governments hasn't blocked any news sources reporting on the VIOLENCE IN URUMQI, or any chinese versions of these social networking sites like tudou, xiaonei etc. Stopping facebook and twitter is just the governments way of stopping people writing home about it.
But….well, I mean most of my friends wouldn't give a rats a*s if I did report back on the VIOLENCE IN URUMQI (They wouldn't even know where it is, or what it is).
All that is getting back to the UK and US, is, VIOLENCE IN URUMQI and CHINESE GOVERNMENT BLOCKS ENGLISH SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES – it's just confirming an image of the Chinese Government that they are desperately trying to not project.
Unable to login to facebook or twitter as of July 7; I am living in Beijing. Wikipedia was also temporarily blocked, but now is accessible. Youtube has been blocked since the Tibetan beatings back in March. Proxies such as anonymous.org and sneakme.net are no longer accessible.
That the government wants to prevent me from communicating via social network mediums such as facebook says that it is not simply about preventing locals from accessing foreign media. Most locals, even English speaking ones, do not know how to search the web to retrieve results in English (as straightforward as it sounds). It is my impression that the government more so wishes to prevent news from China leaving via these sites, including footage via youtube. Ironically, there might not be a better way to alert the foreign community that the government is still restricting freedom of speech than to clamp down on the sites that typically only foreigners are using.
I hope the Facebook staff will do something about this. I have been a loyal user of FB ever since its early beginnings. I use the site everyday not just for communicating with friends but also for my personal business. I have invested thousands of dollars for my ads to run and I profited as well.
But now that FB is not accessible to China, how can I continue with my business? Some people thinks that it's just a virtual world and an addiction, but for me, I use FB as a source of income to give a better future to my kids. I own a business in China, and now we are simply shutting down thanks to their governments policies.
Coming to China is the worst investment I made.
I've found a way to get around the block.
Step One: Download and install English Firefox
http://releases.mozillaonline.com/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.5/win32/en-GB/Firefox Setup 3.5.exe
Step Two: Download and install JAP (Java Anonymous Proxy)
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/win/jap_all/japsetup.exe
Step Three: Open Firefox and click on the 'Tools' menu
Select 'Options'
Click on the 'Advanced' tab at the top left
Click on the 'Network' tab
Under the 'Connections' title click on the 'Settings' button
Choose 'Manual proxy configuration'
In the 'HTTP Proxy' box write 'localhost' and in the 'Port' box write '4001'
Tick the box 'use this proxy server for all protocols'
Click 'OK'
Click 'OK' again
Step Four: Open JAP (Start menu – Programs – JAP – JAP)
When it loads, try opening facebook in firefox.
If it runs too slowly, go to JAP and go to the services drop box at the top.
Click the down arrow and choose 'free services'. Select a different service and try again to get one thats not too slow.
Hope that works for you all.
YOu know how facebook emails you the things going on, on your profile? well i got all those emails but i couldn't get to the website which is really agitating!!!!! It had been blocked for about 2 weeks already!!! i hope it is unblocked asap!!!!!
hi i live in HK.. but sometimes i come to shenzhen to visit my dad
soo.. here i am now.. in shenzhen.. trying to go on facebook.
this is sad.. whats wrong with fb? omg i cant live without it, and theeres nothing better to do here.. yea it's sad.. very sad..
HELPHELPHELP
I USED 2 BE ABLE 2 GO ON FACEBOOK AND UTUBE 2 KEEP IN CONTACT WIT MI FRIENDZ AND WATCH FUNNY VIDEOS, WIT DA HELP OF FREEDUR, AN ANONYMOUS PROXY-SURFING DEVICE USED 2 BYPASS CHINA'S FIREWALL. UNFORTUNATELY NOW ITZ NOT WORKING. I TURN IT ON JUST LIKE I ALWAYS DO, BUT I CAN'T GO ON FACEBOOK OR YOUTUBE. FOR THAT MATTER, WHEN FREEDUR IS ON, I CAN'T GO *ANYWHERE* AT ALL. ITS ONLY WHEN A TURN OFF FREEDUR WEN I CAN GO ON OTHER SITES, BUT I STILL CAN'T GO ON FACEBOOK OR YOUTUBE. HAS CHINA SUMHOW FOUND A WAY 2 GET THRU FREEDUR? OR IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH MI COMPUTER OR INTERNET CONNECTION?! HELP HELP HELP NOWW!!!1
It is true. I am an American in Guangzhou. My facebook access has been blocked for 3 days. Boo how.
china safe? if they can blocked and scan facebook or the others as well then it means we dont have any privacy anymore? do they really care about us foreigners? if they blocked nudes it still can be considered but facebook? this is really insulting. grow up.. its a free world… like the air you breathe
OK this is not funny anymore. I need to login to facebook to talk to my friends. Now i have nothing to do and am bored to death everyday because they blocked facebook.
THEY SUCK MAN!!! CHINA SUCKED!!!! WHY THE HELL DO THEY BLOCKED FACEBOOK???? IS THE BEST THING TO LONG ON MAN! SCREW CHINA!!! ERRRR. **** THEM MAN! ER. REALLY WANNA PUNCH SOMEONE ON THE FACE RIGHT NOW!
I just came back to China for 10 days to visit relatives and my dad is helping me start a business. I was really perplexed when I could get on youtube, facebook, or twitter. I have lost bascially all contact with my friends and lost my favrotie source of entertainment. I feel that this time, the Chinese government has gone too far. I am very proud to be Chinese but to take away my basic right to speak to my friends and enjoy my internet entertainment is outright ludacris. I don't know how long they can keep this up for but when the Asia Games roll around in 2010 in Guang zhou and they're still doing this, China will get a lot of crap from many countries(not that they care since they are the boys with the big guns)…
seems the web site have been blocked for a long time. I tried to use web proxy, no luck.
I have to use VPN in order to use facebook.
Facebook has been blocked for me for a long time, yet it works in Hong Kong and Macau. China has definately blocked facebook, I can't even acess it using a proxy anymore…..
Yeah it's been out at my home and at work but sometimes either or chooses to work. They are definately doing something. Maybe they're testing a new scanning system. I say that cuz I can get to the website and the name comes on the top of the IE Explorer Title Bar but the window contents are empty. It's like it has initially connected and then stop stransmitting, like it's been intercepted. Seems like they are learning the transfer of packet system or something like that, not a techie but I think Facebook's code has to be learned by the govvie before my privacy can be properly invaded.
I AM SO ANGRY!!! Facebook is one of the best ways the Foreign community keeps in touch in China. Personally, I am organizing a beach party, our last party last month had over 300 foreigners come out largely in part because of facebook and the power it has to communicate to our community here.
CHINA HAS GONE TOO FAR!!! This is the most insane type of censorship, it is censoring people from connecting and communicating with eachother. It's not about Free speech its about the Freedom to Assemble (On the net). Taking away our organizing tools is a very bad sign, that and all the VISA regulations that have made countless friends have to return to their own countries and those denied visas is showing us a very very communistic iron hand still ruling China.
Man China is being such a biach why can't they unblock facebook???? I just came here to go to an international school, and I can't keep in touch with my friends back in the USA. Wtf China??? Seriously… Youtube was bad enough… but now FACEBOOK?!?!?!??!?!?! Jeez please unblock facebooooook I wanna chat with my friends!!! ILL BE YOUR BeST BUDDy!!!!!!!
It's been blocked in Fujian, Xiamen for 3 days.
When I arrived in Hong Kong I was able to access my Facebook but I am in mainland China and WOW…I travel here alot but my last visit was back in May 2009 and I was always able to access it…what is up!
I would think that there would be a backdoor to get in…somebody out there should be able to figure this out…:>)
Funny…they block facebook but keep myspace open…so there is a way around them…sort of…now when I get home I will get allllll my friends to also join myspace.
I'm using Freedur now. It is the best I have ever used and finally I can access to my Facebook. It's really fast. SCREW THE GOV MAN!!
Someone has tell me Facebook will be unlocked for the shanghai expo !
Is it true or fake ?
In my country, facebook was blocked too but we still access it by changing the DNS server address.
I'm in Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang province. I'm an Australian and Facebook is the number one way I keep in touch with what's going on back home. It's been blocked here for the last week and along with about 10 of my foreign friends I'm extremely frustrated. What possible reason could the government have for blocking a social tool like this? I keep trying to log on every day with no luck. I have no way of knowing what's happening with my family and friends now without spending a fortune on phone bills. Besides the fact that the phone lines are generally rubbish and I can't hear what they say anyway… I love China. I'm living here because I love it, but this is some real bullshit. Youtube I can kind of understand, but blocking facebook is just ridiculous.
This is bullshit motherfucking annoying as hell I can't go on facebook and fucking chat with my friends and now I have is fucking nothing, NO way to communicate back to the states fucking stop fucking with the internet china fuck, you can't control everything. FUck my life at least Myspace still fucking works fuck i cuss a lot. shit.
Fight ACTA, join the Internet Freedom Movement. (IFM)
IRC http://n0v4.com/irc.web.php?channel=antiactaplanning
Site http://anti-acta.com/
hi every body , i am living inside a big prison its name is Iran , yeath every thing that you could imagin is forbidden . no love no fun nothing except eating and working and sleeping..most of the web sites like : you tube . face book . twitter etc.. are blocked . beside internet speed is horrible , its like a turtle movement , and cell net is totaly ristricted,,,what can i say . no Tv programs no Visa`s no passports no facebook …lets celebrate these dark days wich nobody hear`s out shouting of.. H…E…L..P..
THIS IS SO IRRITATING!!!
I came back to CHina to visit my family and I wanted to check my facebook but the internet won't even let me on the site, but it let's me go on other sites DX
What other good website will be blocked in China? Most of famous website can not be visited in China. They are "wolves". That is What China do.