Since July of 2009, Twitter has been one of the 2600 websites that the People’s Republic of China have blocked as a part of the Country’s policy of Internet Censorship, something we are trying hard to fight and avoid the threat of here in North America.
However, despite its policy, to a September 2012 GlobalWebIndex report shows that China tops the charts with 35.5 million active users; active users are determined by making an action on the site at least once in a monthly period.
Although it is blocked, there may be certain times during the day where the policy may be lifted; however it is more likely that people are using other tools to get their tweets out, ones that the Government are unaware of and have yet to have prevented their citizens access.
India quickly comes in second place with 33 million and in third place is the U.S. with nearly 23 million active users on Twitter. The curiosity most certainly peaked our interest if this is the true proof of wanting something you cannot have and therefore makes you want it even more.
Regardless of how many people are within the population, if a site is blocked it takes time and skill to skip the rules without getting caught and could be a potential risk of imprisonment, I wonder if the same rules applied here, would we take such a gamble to be heard in 140 characters?
twitter logo via Shutterstock
