Despite Official Ban, Facebook Accessible in China
The following excerpt is from a Voice of America article.
Chinese Internet users took advantage of an apparent glitch in the country's extensive web censorship program Tuesday by accessing Facebook, which is usually blocked in the tightly controlled communist country.
Internet users across the country reported being able to access the social networking website early Tuesday. VOA's Beijing bureau was able to visit the site using the prefix "HTTPS" instead of the usual "HTTP," which is a way of accessing websites using a secure connection.
Steven Millward, the China editor at TechInAsia.com, told VOA such temporary holes are common in the so-called "Great Firewall of China," which restricts access to popular foreign websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Millward said, "We've seen glitches for a few hours, or even a few days, before. Unfortunately, things don't seem to come back from the dead. Not since 2009, when things got much stricter in terms of web filtering. So I'd err on the side of caution and say, unfortunately, it's just a glitch, so enjoy it while you can."
Although Facebook was still accessible at VOA's Beijing office as of late afternoon local time, many others posted messages on another social networking site - Twitter - saying the Facebook site had been re-blocked.
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