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"China's notorious firewall was down temporarily this week, allowing the Chinese to access Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites usually blocked by the country's strict Internet controls. \nThe cause of the breach is currently unknown, Reuters reports. Internet users say the were able to access sites \u2014 without using expensive VPNs, as some do \u2014 Monday night and Tuesday. By Wednesday, however, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were again blocked.\nDuring the firewall's outage, many Chinese flocked to Google+, particularly to U.S. President Barack Obama's page. They left many comments calling for freedom of expression, such as \"the Chinese GOV doesn't represent the Chinese people.\"\n\nBeyond the Great Firewall: How China Does Social Networking [INFOGRAPHIC]\n\"It is important to persistently let the world know about CCP\u2019s [Chinese Communist Party] evil deeds against China and Chinese people,\" another commenter wrote. \"I think that you also should get organised with a clear plan and with clear task responsibility. Do not forget to communicate with those who are living within China.\"\nChina shuts down access to millions of foreign sites each year. The government believes that uncensored access to social networks would cause societal disruption. \nHome-grown social networks, such as Sina Weibo (a microblog Twitter substitute) and Renren (a Facebook-like network) are popular, yet censor content in accordance with government regulations. \nHow do you think communications can best be facilitated between China and the rest of the online world? Let us know in the comments.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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