Good News for Facebook and Twitter as China Lifts ban
After years of being locked out of China,
Facebook and several media companies have been given the green light in the
country -- sort of.
According to the South China Morning Post, the Chinese government has
decided to lift a ban on foreign websites deemed politically sensitive, albeit
only within the newly developed Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
That means those within the 17-square-mile area will be able to access Facebook , Twitter, The New York Times and
more.
Currently, Facebook and Twitter are among websites that remain
blocked by the government's censorship system, casually referred to as the Great Firewall of China. Attempts to access Facebook result in an error message:
"Network Timeout."
This latest development lets Facebook and Twitter get their feet
in the door of the most populous and fastest-growing Internet community in the
world. Both companies have acknowledged a desire to tap into the world's
largest social media market, with 513 million Internet users -- more than
double the size in the United States.
News of the partially lifted ban caught several major players by
surprise. A Facebook spokeswoman said the company was only aware of the Post
news report.
A spokeswoman at the New York Times had only this to say: "We are
hearing the same thing you are." Twitter did not respond to requests for
comment.
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