Censorship of Facebook - Wikipedia Censorship of Facebook Main article : Internet censorship Several countries have interfered with or banned access to the social networking website Facebook, including Bangladesh, China ( not including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan ), Iran, and North Korea. Use of the website has also been restricted in other ways in other countries. As of May 2016, the only countries to ban access around the clock to the social networking site are China, Iran, and North Korea. However, since the vast majority of North Korean residents do not have access to the internet, China and Iran are the only countries where access to Facebook is actively restricted in a wholesale manner. Contents 1 Censorship by country 1.1 Bangladesh 1.2 China 1.3 Egypt 1.4 Germany 1.5 Hungary 1.6 India 1.7 Iran 1.8 Israel 1.9 Malaysia 1.10 Mauritius 1.11 Morocco 1.12 North Korea 1.13 Pakistan 1.14 Sri Lanka 1.15 Syria 1.16 Tajikistan 1.17 United Kingdom 1.18 Vietnam 2 See also 3 References Censorship by country Bangladesh See also : Blasphemy law in Bangladesh Bangladesh ( like Iran, China and North Korea ) had banned Facebook before - the Bangladeshi ban operated for a short period of time. The Awami League - led government of Bangladesh announced a countrywide ban on Facebook and other social - network websites. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ( in office from 2009 ) proposed the establishment of an Internet monitoring committee with the help of Bangladesh 's intelligence services. Right - wing political parties and groups in Bangladesh protested against bloggers and others they had considered `` blasphemous '' at the time of the proposal. Extremists in the country had murdered eight secularists, including atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was fatally stabbed in February 2013. National riots over the country 's war - crimes trials resulted in the deaths of 56 people between 19 January 2013 and 2 March 2013. On 18 November 2015 the same Awami League government banned Facebook again on the eve of the final judgement of Bangladesh Jamaat - e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salauddin Kader Chowdhury. Both the politicians and previous minister have been issued a death sentence by the War Criminals Tribunal and the review board of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has finally given their judgement in favour of the previously given one. The Bangladesh government lifted the ban on 20 December 2015. Facebook is accessible in Bangladesh as of late 2017. China Main article : Internet censorship in the People 's Republic of China In China, Facebook was blocked following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots because Xinjiang independence activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network. Some Chinese users also believed that Facebook would not succeed in China after Google China 's problems. Renren ( formerly Xiaonei ) has many features similar to Facebook, and complies with PRC Government regulations regarding content filtering. As of 20 August 2013, there have been reports of Facebook being partially unblocked in China. However, according to the `` Blocked in China '' website, Facebook is still blocked. Facebook is not blocked in Hong Kong and Macau. Egypt Main article : Internet censorship in Egypt Facebook was blocked for a few days in Egypt during the 2011 Egyptian protests. Germany In July 2011, authorities in Germany began to discuss the prohibition of events organized on Facebook. The decision is based on numerous cases of overcrowding by people who were not originally invited. In one instance, 1,600 `` guests '' attended the 16th birthday party for a Hamburg girl who accidentally posted the invitation for the event as public. After reports of overcrowding, more than a hundred police were deployed for crowd control. A police officer was injured and eleven participants were arrested for assault, property damage and resistance to authorities. In another unexpectedly overcrowded event, 41 young people were arrested and at least 16 injured. In 2015, during the European migrant crisis with large numbers of immigrants entering the country unregulated, a broad discussion about the problems of mass immigration and politics of the actual government took place in social media. Early in 2016, a Bertelsmann company called `` Arvato '' was mandated to erase comments and contents from Facebook. In the summer of 2016, police in fourteen German states began coordinated raids on the residences of individuals who praised the Nazi regime or referred to refugees as `` scum '' in a private Facebook group. A law known as NetzDG went into effect starting in 2018 which mandates all websites in Germany, including Facebook, censor such illegal content. A spokesperson for Facebook announced the company 's opposition to the law on the grounds that it would lead to overblocking. Hungary This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( January 2018 ) The Hungarian government does n't want to ban pages, but Facebook itself decided to ban a conservative website. Nobody can write posts or private messages if it contains the string `` kuruc.info '' or link to this conservative website. India The Indian government imposed a six - month ban on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites in Kashmir Valley in 2016 - 17, due to public safety because the Indian government believed social media were being misused by anti-national and anti-social elements backed by Pakistan Army and Pakistan intelligence agencies including Inter-Services Intelligence. The ban was also placed to cut communication between the rebels, who were countering the efforts made by the Indian Army. India also posed three day ban on Facebook and other social sites during the riots in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh regarding Baba Ram Rahim Sing. Iran Main article : Internet censorship in Iran After the 2009 election in Iran, the website was banned because of fears that opposition movements were being organized on the website. However, after four years of the blocking of Facebook website, as of September 2013, the blocking of both Twitter and Facebook was thought to have been lifted without notice. Iranians lost unrestricted access to Facebook and Twitter the next day, leaving many people wondering whether the opening was deliberate or the result of some technical glitch. Israel In September 2016, the Cabinet of Israel has said to have agreed with Facebook to remove content that is deemed as incitement. This announcement came after top Facebook officials met with the Israeli government to determine which Facebook accounts should be deleted on the grounds that they constituted as incitement. The Israeli interior minister 's office has said that they agreed with Facebook representatives to create teams that would figure out how best to monitor and remove `` inflammatory content '' online. Critics of Israels policies are not happy with this move as they claim this is being used as a way to silence outspoken Palestinian civilians, activists and journalists. The activists argue that when they post material meant to critique alleged occupation, Israel sees it as encouraging violence. Malaysia Facebook was blocked for a few days in Malaysia during the 2011 Egyptian protests. Mauritius The Information and Communication Technologies Authority ( ICTA ) of Mauritius, ordered internet service providers of the country to ban Facebook on immediate effect, on the 8 November 2007 because of a fake profile page of the Prime Minister. Access to Facebook was restored on the next day. Morocco Main article : Internet censorship in Morocco On February 5, 2008, Fouad Mourtada, a citizen of Morocco, was arrested for 43 days due to the alleged creation of a faked Facebook profile of Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco. North Korea Main article : Internet in North Korea In April 2016, North Korea started blocking Facebook, `` a move underscoring its concern with the spread of online information, '' according to The Associated Press. Anyone who tries to access it, even with special permission from the North Korean government, will be subject to punishment. Pakistan On May 19, 2010, Lahore High Court ordered Facebook to be blocked. Facebook was blocked until May 31 after a competition page encouraged users to post drawings of Muhammad. The controversial page named `` Draw Muhammad Day '' had been created by a Facebook user in response to American cartoonist Molly Noris 's protest to the decision of US television channel, Comedy Central to cancel an episode of the popular show `` South Park '' over its depiction of Mohammed. Noris had however disavowed having declared May 20 `` Draw Muhammad Day '' and had condemned the effort and issued an apology. The ban, implemented by the PTA, also resulted in a ban on YouTube and restricted access to other websites, including Wikipedia. On 25 November 2017, the NetBlocks internet shutdown observatory and Digital Rights Foundation collected evidence of nationwide blocking of Facebook alongside other social media services, imposed by the government in response to the violent Tehreek - e-Labaik protests. The technical investigation found that all major Pakistani fixed - line and mobile service providers were affected by the restrictions, which were lifted by the PTA the next day when protests abated following the resignation of Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid. Other websites including Twitter, YouTube and Dailymotion were also reportedly blocked by order of the PTA. Sri Lanka In March 2018, Facebook was blocked in Sri Lanka due to racial hate speeches being rumored around the country via the social media which has caused many riots in the country by extremist groups. However this decision is not permanent. Syria Main article : Internet censorship in Syria The Syrian government explained their ban by claiming the website promoted attacks on authorities. The government also feared Israeli infiltration of Syrian social networks on Facebook. Facebook was also used by Syrian citizens to criticize the government of Syria, as public criticism of the Syrian government used to be punishable by imprisonment. In February 2011, Facebook was un-blocked from all ISP 's and the website remains to be accessible. Tajikistan In November 2012, Tajikistan blocked access to Facebook in response to comments posted online, spreading `` mud and slander '' about President Emomalii Rahmon and various other officials. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom on April 28, 2011, the day before the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, a number of politically motivated Facebook groups and pages were removed or suspended from the website as part of a nationwide crackdown on political activity. The groups and pages were mostly concerned with opposition to government spending cuts, and many were used to organize demonstrations in a continuation of the 2010 UK student protests. The censorship of the pages coincided with a series of pre-emptive arrests of known activists. Amongst the arrestees were a street theater group planning an effigy beheading performance in opposition to the monarchy. A Facebook spokesman said the pages were disabled as part of a routine sweep because they were created with fake personal profiles, a violation of the company 's term of service. In this case a number of the Facebook personal profile pages represented causes, rather than real people. Facebook `` offered to help convert the profiles to pages that are designed to represent companies, groups or causes. '' The spokesman went on to say that `` the Met Police did not ask Facebook to take down this content. '' In March 2018, fascist far - right hate group Britain First, was removed by Facebook. The pages of the leaders of the party were also taken down following their arrest and incarceration. Vietnam Facebook was blocked in Vietnam for two weeks in May 2016 due to protest of dissidents. See also Criticism of Facebook # Censorship controversies References Jump up ^ Bangladesh death sentences lead to Facebook ban, BBC News ( November 18, 2015 ), Jump up ^ `` China 's Facebook Status : Blocked ''. ABC News9. July 8, 2009. Archived from the original on 2009 - 07 - 11. ^ Jump up to : `` Facebook Faces Censorship in Iran ''. American Islamic Congress. August 29, 2007. Retrieved April 30, 2008. ^ Jump up to : `` North Korea blocks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube ''. The Associated Press. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016. Jump up ^ `` 80 pct of netizens agree China should punish Facebook ''. The People 's Daily Online. July 10, 2009. Retrieved July 13, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Facebook 上演 戏剧 纸老虎 '' 非 死 不可 `` ''. May 14, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Facebook And Twitter In China ! ''. Headline Asia. South China Morning Post ( published 2013 - 08 - 19 ). 2013 - 08 - 20. Archived from the original on 2013 - 12 - 12. Retrieved 2013 - 12 - 10. Jump up ^ `` Test If Any Website Is Blocked In China ''. BlockedInChina.net. Retrieved August 2, 2014. ^ Jump up to : `` Facebook reported inaccessible in Egypt ''. Google / Agence France - Presse. 26 Jan 2011. Jump up ^ `` Alemanha : Festas convocadas pelo Facebook são `` ameaça à ordem pública '' ``. Ptjornal.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2011. `` Alemanha pode proibir festas combinadas pelo Facebook ''. Destakjornal.com.br. Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Facebook blunder invites 15,000 to teen 's 16th birthday party ; 100 cops show up, too ''. LIBR Guides. July 18, 2015. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Germany aims to break the events through Facebook '' ( in Spanish ). lomejorprogramasparafb.com. March 30, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015. `` Facebook users crash ' public ' birthday party in Hamburg ''. dw.com. Retrieved March 18, 2017. Jump up ^ `` Bertelsmann zensiert Facebook - Postings im Namen der Bundesregierung ''. NEOPresse -- Unabhängige Nachrichten ( in German ). Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 21. Jump up ^ `` German police launch first nationwide hate speech raids ''. The Local. 13 July 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2018. Jump up ^ `` Germany implements new internet hate speech crackdown ''. Deutsche Welle. 1 January 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018. Jump up ^ Evans, Patrick ( 2017 - 09 - 18 ). `` Will Germany 's new law kill free speech online ? ''. BBC. Retrieved 2018 - 06 - 05. Jump up ^ `` Facebook, Twitter, other social media banned in Kashmir ''. Al Jazeera. April 26, 2017. Retrieved 2017 - 09 - 10. Jump up ^ `` Iran Unblocks Twitter and Facebook ''. Chris Taylor. Mashable. August 17, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013. Jump up ^ Erdbrink, Thomas ( September 17, 2013 ). `` Iran Bars Social Media Again After a Day ''. The New York Times. Jump up ^ `` Facebook and Israel to work to monitor posts that incite violence ''. The Guardian. 2016 - 12 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Facebook Says It Is Deleting Accounts at the Direction of the U.S. and Israeli Governments ''. The Intercept. 2016 - 12 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Facebook is collaborating with the Israeli government to determine what should be censored ''. The Intercept. 2017 - 12 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Palestinian Activists Are Angry About Alleged Facebook Censorship ''. Huffington Post. 2016 - 09 - 29. Jump up ^ `` Facebook : A Mauritian tragedy ? ''. Noulakaz. 2007 - 11 - 08. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 29. Jump up ^ `` Facebook outage in Mauritius -- it 's been censored ! ! ! Sometimes life is good... '' Pascalg.wordpress.com. 2007 - 11 - 08. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 29. Jump up ^ `` Maurice censure le site communautaire Facebook ''. L'express. Archived from the original on 2012 - 09 - 13. Retrieved 9 Nov 2007. Jump up ^ `` Police arrest man for ' villainous ' theft of prince 's ID on Facebook ''. CNN. February 7, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Moroccan held for alleged royal ID theft ''. The New York Times. February 7, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Jump up ^ `` DRF and NetBlocks find blanket and nation - wide ban on social media in Pakistan and demand it to be lifted immediately ''. Digital Rights Foundation. 2017 - 11 - 26. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 29. Jump up ^ `` Activists assail blanket ban on social media ''. The Nation. 2017 - 11 - 27. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 29. Jump up ^ `` All you need to know about nation - wide internet disruptions during dharna ''. Samaa TV. 2017 - 11 - 27. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 29. Jump up ^ `` The issue of social media networking ''. The Nation. 2017 - 11 - 26. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 29. Jump up ^ `` Pakistan suspends TV news channels and social media sites to block protest coverage ''. ifex. 29 November 2017. Jump up ^ `` Tense situ in Teldeniya over death of assault victim ''. Jump up ^ Safi, Michael ( March 14, 2018 ). `` Sri Lanka accuses Facebook over hate speech after deadly riots ''. The Guardian. As mobs of hardline Buddhists rioted and lit fires in towns in the central district of Kandy, Facebook, WhatsApp and several other platforms were blocked across the country (... ) Both Facebook and WhatsApp remain restricted but the Guardian understands the block on the latter could be lifted by Wednesday evening. ^ Jump up to : Yacoub Oweis, Khaled ( November 23, 2007 ). `` Syria blocks Facebook in Internet crackdown ''. Reuters. Retrieved March 5, 2008. Jump up ^ `` Syrian gov 't blocks use of Facebook ''. The Jerusalem Post. November 24, 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2008. Jump up ^ Tajikistan blocks Facebook access to silence critics, International : Reuters, November 27, 2012 Jump up ^ Could it happen again ? Remembering Pakistan 's Facebook, YouTube ban, International : Dawn, March 27, 2017 Jump up ^ Malik, Shiv ( April 29, 2011 ). `` Activists claim purge of Facebook pages ''. The Guardian. London. ^ Jump up to : `` Facebook ' suspends UK activist groups ' - Channel 4 News ''. Channel4.com. 2011 - 04 - 29. Retrieved 2011 - 10 - 29. ^ Jump up to : Preston, Jennifer ( April 29, 2011 ). `` Facebook Deactivates Protest Pages in Britain ''. The New York Times. Jump up ^ Booth, Robert ; Laville, Sandra ; Malik, Shiv ( April 29, 2011 ). `` Royal wedding : police criticised for pre-emptive strikes against protesters ''. The Guardian. London. Jump up ^ `` Royal wedding : Three held over effigy beheading claims ''. BBC News. April 29, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Facebook blocked in Vietnam over the weekend due to citizen protest ''. TechCrunch. Retrieved May 30, 2016. Censorship and websites Censorship of Facebook File sharing sites GitHub iTunes Store The Pirate Bay Twitter WikiLeaks Reception in the United States Wikipedia YouTube in Germany Censorship by AOL Apple Cisco in China Google Microsoft in China Myspace in China Skype in China Yahoo Facebook YouTube Twitter Websites blocked in Belgium Mainland China India Pakistan Russia South Korea North Korean United Kingdom list Facebook Website Features Beacon Bluetooth Beacon Credits Dating EdgeRank Graph Search Instant Articles Like button Live facebookcorewwwi. onion Platform Safety Check Stories Watch ( List of original programs ) Zero Other products Current Atlas Solutions Express Wi - Fi Free Basics Instagram Hyperlapse IGTV List of most followed accounts List of most liked pictures Messenger MSQRD Oculus Rift Onavo WhatsApp Workplace Former Camera FriendFeed Hello Home HTC First M ( virtual assistant ) Moves Paper Poke ( app ) Riff Slingshot tbh Wirehog People Founders Mark Zuckerberg ( 28 % equity ) Dustin Moskovitz ( 7 % ) Eduardo Saverin ( 5 %, formerly ) Chris Hughes ( 1 %, formerly ) Andrew McCollum Board Mark Zuckerberg Jim Breyer ( 11 % ) Peter Thiel ( 2 % ) Sheryl Sandberg Marc Andreessen Erskine Bowles Susan Desmond - Hellmann Donald E. Graham Reed Hastings Executive officers Current Mark Zuckerberg ( Chairman and CEO ) Sheryl Sandberg ( COO ) David Wehner ( CFO ) Mike Schroepfer ( CTO ) Former Sean Parker ( 4 %, formerly ) Owen Van Natta Gideon Yu Adam D'Angelo Chris Kelly Bret Taylor David Ebersman Notable employees Current Chris Cox ( VP of Product ) Elliot Schrage ( VP of Global Communications, Marketing and Public Policy ) Lars Rasmussen ( Graph Search director ) John Carmack ( CTO of Oculus VR ) Hugo Barra ( VP of Oculus VR ) Naomi Gleit ( VP of social good ) Caryn Marooney ( VP of Communications ) Former Blake Ross ( Director of Product ) Ted Ullyot ( VP, General Counsel, and Secretary ) Matt Cohler Charlie Cheever Randi Zuckerberg Yishan Wong George Hotz Joe Lockhart Andrei Alexandrescu ( research scientist ) Open source Apache Cassandra Apache Hive Apache Thrift Buck FQL Hack HHVM HipHop for PHP MyRocks Open Compute Project Phabricator React RocksDB Scribe Telecom Infra Project Tornado ( web server ) Mass media The Facebook Effect The Accidental Billionaires The Social Network Concepts Activity stream Social graph Friending and following Reblogging Fan - gating Facebook diplomacy Facebook like button Business History Timeline Acquisitions f8 conference IPO Censorship Criticism Cambridge Analytica data scandal Litigation Financial performance 2018 Divisions Facebook AI Research Facebook Creative Labs Related Priscilla Chan ( wife of Mark Zuckerberg ) Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Aquila Internet relay drone Willow Village Internet censorship circumvention technologies Background Internet censorship Internet censorship in China National intranet Censorship and blocking technologies IP address blocking DNS cache pollution Wordfilter Great Firewall of China Blocks on specific websites Wikipedia Facebook Twitter Principles With a proxy server P2P Web proxies SSH VPN PAC Without a proxy server HTTPS IPv6 transition mechanism hosts DNSCrypt Anti-censorship software Free software Lantern Psiphon GoAgent GoProxy Shadowsocks V2Ray VPN Gate Proprietary software Freegate Ultrasurf Hotspot Shield fqrouter GPass Xiaoyaoyou Huofenghuang Garden Networks Puff West Wing plan Telex FreeBrowser Integrated into browsers X browser ( supporting Android only ) Xingyuan browser ( supporting Windows only ) Changyou Wuxian browser Xskywalker ( Tianxing browser ) Browser extensions uProxy Hongxing Anonymity Anonymous software Tor I2P JAP Anonymous P2P network ZeroNet Freenet StealthNet Relevant organizations GreatFire FreeWeibo FreeBrowser Turkey Blocks Relevant events 2016 Chinese meme war on Facebook Reference Program Think Blog Great Cannon Strike through : the maintainers have stopped maintenance Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Censorship_of_Facebook&oldid=854703156 '' Categories : Internet censorship by organisation Facebook Criticism of Facebook Hidden categories : CS1 Spanish - language sources ( es ) CS1 German - language sources ( de ) All articles with vague or ambiguous time Vague or ambiguous time from April 2017 Articles needing additional references from January 2018 All articles needing additional references All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from November 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 13 August 2018, at 05 : 58 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: why can't you access facebook in china
Answer: Facebook was blocked following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots  because Xinjiang independence activists were using Facebook as part of their communications network