10 Reasons Countries Ban FaceBook

Not everyone has freedom to access all areas of the internet. Many countries restrict the internet access of their residents by blocking the use of certain types of sites. Social media sites, like Facebook, are one of the most frequently banned in these countries. Why would a country ban the use of Facebook? Here are ten reasons.
1.Use by revolutionaries – In many of the recent revolutionary activities around the world, Facebook was a connecting medium for the revolutionary leaders and a means to gather support.
2.Political speech – Countries which attempt to control political speech have recognized the power of social media to communicate ideas quickly to large numbers of people. This can be very threatening to the regime in power.
3.Religious speech – Those countries where religion is controlled by the government have seen the openness of religious speech on the Facebook platform. They see the sharing of religious ideas as dangerous to their control in that area.
4.Women’s rights – Facebook is also considered to be a possible platform for encouraging women’s rights in societies where women have been limited in their roles and their personal freedoms.
5.Closed media – Many countries have closed media policies. The news people have access to is filtered through government approval. Facebook would provide them with the means to hear news reports outside the government filters.
6.Human rights reports – Human rights activists have used Facebook to publicize the abuse of human rights in some countries and gain global support for their causes.
7.No borders – Facebook has no borders. Individuals and groups can openly communicate with each other. For those countries which control who are restrictive about who can enter and who can leave their country, this type of freedom is very threatening.
8.Easy access to populace – The viral nature of Facebook communication is one of its biggest threats in these countries. The ability to quickly communicate information and ideas to a large amount of the local populace and the outside world is recognized as being dangerous to their control of the general populace.
9.Virtual meetings – Facebook allows dissidents to meet virtually instead of in a physical location. It also allows for the hiding of their identities.
10.Information control – In general, countries ban Facebook in order to try and control the flow of all kinds of information. Knowledge is power, it has been said. If you limit the knowledge of the people, you limit their power.

This is a good reminder, that we should not take our personal freedoms for granted. There are actually more countries in the world that restrict.