Americans and citizens of most countries in the world take checking their Facebook page or firing off a few tweets to express their opinion as a natural right, and very few think about less fortunate people who live in countries with authoritarian government who regularly block social media. According to a recent report from Dadaviz, there are actually only six countries across the globe who actively block social media networks: China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam.
North Korea total social media ban
Turkey
China
China has long had a policy of internet censorship, and has an outright ban on Western social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The Chinese government claimed that social networking platforms were used to coordinate anti-government protests in Xinjiang and elsewhere, as well as spread rumors that are harmful to the state, so they banned them.
However as reported by Valuewalk, Facebook is still actively involved in China despite being banned back in 2009, and the company is reporting revenue strong growth in the region despite the ban. Twitter, which is also banned in China, recently opened an office in Hong Kong that will serve as the head office for the greater China region.
Pakistan, Vietnam and Iran
These three countries all have authoritarian governments that seek to control the news and information flow to their populations. Social media is an obvious threat to their control of information, so the governments in these Pakistan, Iran and Vietnam have banned these platforms. However, like in China and Turkey, many residents of these countries do have at least some access social media via VPN networks.
[via: BusinessInsider] [Source: Dadaviz]