Charles Liu, Changes to Facebook’s latest Android app may allow users in China to circumvent government protocols and gain access to the banned social media platform.
The mobile Facebook app allows users to access Tor, an online anonymity program that encrypts and scrambles Internet signals. Because Tor masks a user’s true location, a Facebook user in China may be able to elude censoring protocols that block Facebook.
In the app’s settings panel, users can access the mobile phone version of Tor, called Orbot. Once activated (shown above), Chinese Facebook users may be able to finally get around the Great Firewall of China. This workaround will only be available to Android users; iPhone users will just have to wait.
As we’ve seen in the past, however, the gatekeepers of the Internet in China have been quick to thwart attempts to vault over the Great Firewall. VPN users have seen the effectiveness of their services tested in China, especially iPhone users following a recent update to the GFW. As fleeting as it was, a glitch in the matrix that led to half an hour of free Google access in China was a cruel temptation once the gate was slammed shut.
That a technical solution was found to give Facebook access to Chinese Internet users is odd, considering the lengths Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has gone in order to pander to Chinese authorities. Zuckerberg studied Putonghua for years, and has given two speeches – spoken entirely in Chinese to an amazed audience – at Tsinghua University, where he has been accepted as a board member. Zuckerberg has also promoted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book to his staff, urging them to understand “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
Perhaps the greatest (lowest?) moment of pandering was when Zuckerberg gave the honor of naming his first son to President Xi during his state visit to the USA. Xi is said to have politely declined the offer.
It may be that Zuckerberg’s attempts to warm up to the Chinese government may be over, all with the flick of a switch.
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