countries where facebook,twitter and youtube are blocked

On Thursday, the Turkish government blockedthe country's access to YouTube, after banningTwitter earlier this month, in an effort to quell anti-government sentiment prior to local elections on March 30. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan saysthat social networks are facilitating the spread of wiretapped recordings that have been politically damaging.The YouTube block reportedlycame about after a video surfaced of government officials discussing the possibility of going to war with Syria.The government officially banned Twitter after the network refused to take down an accountaccusing a former minister of corruption.Twitter is challenging the ban and a Turkish court overturnedit on Wednesday, but it's not yet clear how an appeal might play out. Turkey is hardly the first country to crack down on social unrest by going after social networks. There are at least six other countries currently blocking Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter in some capacity (see map below), and many more have instituted temporary blocks over the last couple of years. Here's everything you need to know: China:China blockedFacebook, Twitter, and YouTube in 2009. The Twitter and Facebook bans took place after a peaceful protestby Uighurs, China's Muslim ethnic minority, broke into deadly riotsin Xinjiang. In September 2013, the government decided to stop censoring foreign websites in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, a 17-square-mile area in mainland China, but these social networks are still largely blocked nationwide. Iran:Iran has blocked Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on and off ( usually off) since they were banned in 2009following Iran's contentious presidential election. Vietnam:Over the last couple of years, there have been widespread reports of Facebook being blockedin Vietnam. The block is fairly easy to bypass, and many Vietnamese citizens use the social network. However, in September 2013, Vietnam passed a lawprohibiting citizens from posting anti-government content on the social network. Facebook did not comment on access in Vietnam. Pakistan:In September 2012, Pakistan blockedYouTube after the site reportedly refused to take down an anti-Islam video that sparked protests in the country. The block has continued through March 2014, according to Google. North Korea:Internet access is highly restricted in North Korea. Eritrea:According to Reporters Without Borders, in 2011, two of the country's major internet service providers blocked YouTube. Freedom House, a US watchdog that conducts research on political freedom, said the site was blocked in its 2013 report and notes, "The government requires all internet service providers to use state-controlled internet infrastructure." Eritrea is routinely listed as one of the most censored countries in the world.Google does not includeEritrea on its list of countries in its transparency reportthat currently block YouTube, but notes that the list "is not comprehensive" and may not include partial blocks. (Update, 3/31: Since this article came out, some users familiar with Eritrea have said that the site is not blocked, but instead, often inaccessible due to lack of bandwidth