Faceblocked

Facebook is blocked in Vietnam.

Irritating much? Don’t get me started on the social and political implications of this. Censorship of social networking sites is ridiculous.

Ooooooh, I’m gonna wish my friend a happy birthday. Watch out, I’m gonna upload a travel photo! Bloody hell, I’m gonna “Like” that my friend just got engaged!!!

SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET – TRAVELING THY JUST RECONNECTED WITH A CHILDHOOD FRIEND.

Really, people?

Ok, so the government here doesn’t like there being an international platform for voices that oppose it, such as anti-whatever facebook groups.

Is that any reason to block the 99% of other Vietnamese people who use it innocently to keep in touch with friends?

I mean, I could certainly live without Facebook. I’ve got other means to feed my narcissism – since that is, after all, what Facebook is for, yes? (Hello, blog). But not having access to my contacts is frustrating. Email suffices for the most part. But for the many amazing traveler friends I’ve met on this journey, Facebook is my only way of connecting with them.

When you try to access Facebook.com in this country, your browser tells you it cannot locate or connect to the site. Alternate Facebook pages such as lite.facebook.com are available (sometimes) but they have very limited functionality.

When I first arrived last summer, it was easy to get past the block by changing the DNS settings on my computer. Some days it worked and some days it didn’t.

Plus, the block was dependent on what internet service provider was being used (aka an ISP that accepts the government’s money to block the website versus one that doesn’t, according to the locals).

Since the new year, however, it appears all the ISPs have blocked Facebook. And still, there’s never been any sort of announcement to notify the public of this block or why it’s being imposed.

Fortunately, there is a workaround for this at the moment. But if I publish it, I run the risk of having my own website blocked.

I’ve had many fascinating conversations with the locals my age, about freedom, censorship, socialism, communism and democracy. It’s been educational to say the least, but again, publishing much of that could give my website the ax around here.

If I express my honest-to-goodness opinions about some of these subjects, I could even face imprisonment.

Yeah. So I’ll keep those to myself.

I will, however, say this: GOD BLESS AMERICA (and the rest of the free world).

So if any of you do happen to catch me on Facebook, you’ll notice it’s in spurts. And now you’ll know that I’m not actually supposed to be there.

Every status update, every comment, every “Like”…it all makes me a rebel. An evil, dangerous social networking renegade livin’ on the EDGE! Watch out Faceblockers – I’m Facebookin’. Ooooooh.