Stuff I like

Many people don't know that Facebook in China is blocked. Yup, sounds crazy, huh? I discovered the internet censorship in China the hard way. I had no idea that I cannot access Facebook in China, and once I realized, I found a blog post which explained exactly how to access Facebook in China within minutes.

Twitter, Youtube and Gmail are blocked as well. The Gmail service works through Google... Which means that Google is blocked as well! So, if you were wondering how I searched the internet for my service to unblock websites, my answer is: I had to call home and ask my family to do the research for me. And quickly. I felt so disconnected from the world not being able to access any of my social media websites. It was even more difficult for me since I had no idea that there are countries that block the internet, Dubai and Iran as well...

It was my first trip to China, which would explain why I didn’t know that I have to unblock blocked sites... My brother quickly found a service for me and gave me the website information. I signed up and voila! I was able to access Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and unblock  YouTube, and the list goes on...!

It's really beyond me why a country would block their people from the internet. It seems really unfair to me. No free speech? I guess not. I wonder if some day the government will lift the internet ban and allow their people free access to the internet.

There are so many benefits to the internet, and especially social media. I can't imagine not being able to access Facebook on a regular basis. I had to write about this, because I found it so shocking that in the year of 2013 people are banned from something that I take for granted, and never even thought of.

In case you have never heard of a proxy, I will give you a quick explanation. When you sign into a proxy service, it is as if you are singing in from a different IP location. Which means that you will be recognized as surfing from another country (not China) which is how you will have the ability to access websites that are banned in China. Make sure that whatever proxy service you do use, is a secure proxy. This means that the URL should read https:// and not just http://

Are you looking for a Facebook proxy for china? If you are traveling in that direction, you most likely will want to stay connected with your friends and family back home. In case you didn't know this already, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China. Take a moment and let it sink in. That's right, if you're going to want to access your favorite websites in China, you will have to find a way to unblock blocked sites.

The China Facebook censorship, or lets call it ban, began in 2009. I personally did not think it would last this long, however, it has, and we have no idea of when the censorship may come to an end.