FB Making Moves

Since I've moved to mainland China my blog entries have been extremely sporadic. That's because most international blog sites and that makes it enough of a pain where I don't blog regularly. (That and my crazy production and work schedules).

I'm currently in NYC on a trip over the New Year. (Happy Year of the Rabbit to all!) So I figure it's a good time as any to make a quick blog entry about Facebook in the headlines. Facebook is another site that's blocked in mainland China. After viewing this report on the New York Times Website, it's very obvious what' China fears:

Cairo's Facebook Flat

I mean, the guy pretty much said that Facebook and Twitter is what has made the last 2 weeks of protest and possible revolution possible. So I'm wondering why Egypt block or control Facebook and Twitter like they do in China.

I also found the following article in South China Morning Post to be quite timely and interesting as well:

Facebook opens HK office as part of Asian push:

I read that Facebook has hardly any presence in Japan and of course is blocked in China. Lots of speculation about what Facebook is planning to do in Asia and China specifically. But many people I know in HK are pretty damn hooked on Facebook.

And then this article makes China's stance on the Net pretty clear:

War on independent Web cafes worries Net users


In China, information and the Net are closely controlled and monitored. For example, this blog entry can't be easily accessed in the mainland. Currently, if you don't have a VPN, you're pretty much out of luck. I've heard rumors that China's making plans that will render VPN's useless in the mainland as well. Hope not. I like to stay informed about the world beyond what the state says I can or can not follow.

Anyway, that's an interesting snapshot on the state of the world at the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit and 2011. Now let's see how long it'll be before my next blog entry...