UPDATE:

Facebook, a social networking Web site designed to help college students stay connected has recently been banned in China. 

“We either use proxy to access banned websites or we use the Chinese equivalent for the site,” said Elliot Li, a Lee student from China.

After the riot in China earlier this summer over the issue of job security, China’s central government decided to put a ban on a various number of social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all Google services that allow access to open communication. The government assessed that putting a limit on social interaction and reducing the spread of the news of the riot would be a crucial step in the prevention of further outbreaks of violence.

In China, many people use a website called renren.com and youku.com which are Chinese equivalents to Facebook and YouTube, respectively.

The people of China are not struggling to interact with each other.

It is possible that since the government is aware of these alternative Web sites, they were not trying to ban their citizens from all online communication but rather those that allowed interaction with people outside of the country in order to prevent further outbreaks of violence.

“For many friends of mine who live in Mainland China they are happy and content using renren and youku,” Elliot said. “I rarely hear them complain.”