'Is Facebook real?' China's internet users ask in frustration as Iran lifts its ban
China, along with North Korea, is among the few countries which still block Facebook and Twitter
China’s online community brimmed with disappointment - if not despair - on Tuesday after online media reported that Iran had granted its citizens access to Facebook and Twitter. Both sites had been walled off from Iranian users since 2009.
This leaves China, along with its neighbour North Korea, among the very few countries which still block Facebook and Twitter.
“Iranians are now returning to Facebook, yet we Chinese haven't even met Facebook,” one microblogger commented on Weibo.
“What are Facebook and Twitter? Do they really exist?,” one frustrated blogger commented.
“Is this how China demonstrates its 'confidence'?,” another blogger quipped, referring to the new leadership's slogan of "self-confidence".
Some internet users in China visit Twitter and Facebook via paid VPN [virtual private network] services. Yet some complain that VPNs had also been banned and could be unstable.
Others commented that Chinese social networking sites like Weibo had thrived due to the absence of competition from Facebook and Twitter. They argued that the government had blocked the international websites to benefit domestic players.