Campaign to Unblock Facebook in Syria

A group of Syrian cyber-activists are campaigning for the social networking site Facebook to be freely accessible in Syria, a July 28 article on the website All4Syria said.



Syria blocked Facebook in November 2007 after authorities said that it was being used for communication between Syrians and Israelis, which they deemed unacceptable.



Despite the ban, many Syrians find ways to log on to the site, which is only one of hundreds of websites blocked in Syria.



All4Syria said a Facebook group calling for the website to be unblocked had gathered signatures for a statement to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, calling the ban a violation of freedom of expression and contrary to the development of democracy in the country.



The statement said that security services turn a blind eye to the fact that many Syrians access the website in various ways.



The statement called on the authorities to say who ordered the ban and urged Assad to restore the “stolen rights” of Syrian citizens.



Meanwhile, All4Syria said that authorities had stopped the circulation of an issue of the magazine Shabablek because it discussed the ban on accessing Facebook in Syria.