The Chinese government has had enough of your recipes and decor photos

Yet another site blocked
 By 
Marcus Gilmer
 on 
The Chinese government has had enough of your recipes and decor photos
Another social media site falls victim to China's censorship Credit: Newscast/REX/Shutterstock

China added another brick to the Great Firewall by blocking access to social media site Pinterest, making it harder for citizens to share recipes, memes, and whatever else Pinterest is used for.

TechCrunch reports that the site's users in China are now out of luck as censorship tool GreatFire has noted the site has been blocked for a week. There are plenty of clones available, though, for people to flock too.

Still, this is significant mostly because Pinterest lasted so long without being blocked by the Chinese government, which is notorious for high levels of internet censorship.

The big social media sites like Twitter and Facebook remain blocked in mainland China, as does search engine giant Google, along with hundreds of other sites, including news sites like the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Even games like Pokémon Go have been blocked in the country, so Pinterest surviving this long is notable.

We've reached out to Pinterest for comment on the decision.

As for why now, TechCrunch posits an interesting theory:

It’s not exactly clear why the site is being blocked, but it could well be related to timing. ‘Two Sessions,’ the annual gathering of China’s governing classes, is taking place right now in Beijing which puts the government on high-alert for potential problems. Pinterest, it seems, had caught the eye.

For now, users in China will have to rely on all the clones that flooded the still-unblocked online space in the country years ago.

Topics Pinterest

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Marcus Gilmer

Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

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