Pinterest no longer welcomed in China

Don’t bother trying to pin new posts to Pinterest the next time you are in China. Access to Pinterest is block. According to Greatfirewallofchina.org Pinterest is blocked everywhere in mainland China. 

A blogger in China mourned: “A waterfall of tears now that Pinterest is blocked!” 

Blocked with many Western sites

Other Western social media sites have been blocked for years. For example, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, Picasa, and Facebook are inaccessible in China.

But until early in March Pinterest was freely accessible in China. But, then, it’s next to impossible to construe pins on home decor, hair styles, cooking, wedding planning and fashion as anti-government.

Why block Pinterest? 

A political motivation seemed involved. China's annual National People's Congress was happening at that time. The People’s Congress gathers China's top leadership and thousands of delegates to set the country's political and economic course for the next twelve months.

In a paper published two months before Pinterest’s shutdown, Cho-Wen Chu, a professor at Taiwan's Chinese Culture University, said China's censorship has effectively "become a tool of industrial policy to discriminate against foreign competitors." Censoring Pinterest and other Western social media have given a boost to China’s social media giants such as Baidu, Youku, Weibo, Faxian, Meitu, and Renren.  

Sources: WEIBO, ArchitecuralDigest,  TechCrunch, Money