7 Countries Where Facebook Has Been Banned
Facebook is a commonality in everyday life for many Americans. Many have not had to deal with being banned from a social media site by their government. There are constantly altercations that take place on social media posts and information presented, but have you ever wondered what it would be like to have the government control your social media access? Americans have the luxery to stay up to date on current events and foreign affairs through internet and social media but many countries over seas are not as lucky. Their access to many social media sites have been permanently or temporarily banned by their own governments.
- North Korea: This may not be surprising to some, considering their restrictions on many mediums that those in the United States have had unlimited access to. However, in 2016 North Korea’s Regime decided to ban the popular social net working site along with many others in order to control access of information to other countries.
2. China: This country has been a target for Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to get his social networking site to be allowed within the country. China has had a ban on Facebook since 2009 because of fear that the mass would be able to rise against their government. They refuse to allow any site that may bring in Western ideology and cause them to lose control.
3. Iran: Disputes on Twitter over the presidential elections of 2009 have left social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook banned in this country. Ironically, their current leader, President Hasan Rouhani, frequently uses Twitter to communicate about current foreign affairs. His citizens are not allowed to legally use these sites so they are not able to look at any information that he posts even though it is a apart of his administrative strategy.
4. Pakistan: This ban occurred in 2010 after the page titled “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!” launched in May. Sketching the Prophet is seen as offensive to the Muslim community which caused an uproar within the Pakistani population. Facebook was temporarily banned and restored to the public two weeks later.
5. Bangladesh: The ban of Facebook and other social networking sites was invoked by the ruling of a death sentence for two veterans. The veterans fought in the 1971 battle for independence. The site was shut down during the ruling of the death penalty to reduce uproar over the ruling. The ban was lifted shortly after, as soon as the government felt that their was no longer a threat to security, however other social media sites still remained blocked.
6. Egypt: This ban did not happen on the site itself but rather on a free internet service that it provided to the people of Egypt. Facebook’s Free Basis, refused to give surveillance access to the Egyptian government, who inturn banned the free service site in 2016.
7. Vietnam: Facebook here was temporarily blocked for the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama. It was blocked during the visit to help keep occupants calm because communist countries are not yet used to dealing with Western ideology. The ban was later lifted after the president returned to the states.
