Pinterest has become the latest social media site to end up on the wrong side of China's strict internet censorship after reports emerged that the popular scrapbooking website has been inaccessible in Mainland China for one week now.

According to the latest data by GreatFire, China's censorship monitor organization, Pinterest has been blocked in China for past seven days. Although the GreatFire system is known for glitches and temporarily blocking websites, the one week blockade period certainly suggests that Pinterest has been permanently blocked.

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Pinterest has become the latest entrant to China's list of banned social media websites which includes the likes of Facebook and Twitter. The news will most certainly come as a setback for Facebook and Google, the two American tech giants which are desperately trying to reenter China's lucrative internet market.   

Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has been hobnobbing with China's leadership and has visited the Asian country several times. But his persistent efforts have not been able to break China's great firewall as Facebook continues to remain blocked in the world's most populous country. The hard ball being played by Chinese internet regulators means that Facebook, Google, and Twitter are losing on billions of annual revenue.

Meanwhile, Pinterest has so far not given any official statement on this development. The popular photo sharing website has faced partial censorship in China in the past, which led to many local clones some of which have become quite popular among Chinese internet consumers.           

The issue of China's strict Internet censorship has over the year gained a lot of attention, with many experts arguing that this is against the essence of "freedom of expression," one of the fundamental rights. But Chinese leadership has remained adamant despite the global outcry, arguing that state control over the Internet in the country is critical for protecting its ideology and political viewpoints from western forces.                  

Tagspinterest, china, China Internet Censorship, China Pinterest