China has blocked the photo sharing website Pinterest, which has over 150 million users, as stated by the website Greatfire.org, which monitors censorship and accessibility of websites in China, according to CNN reports.
Pinterest, is a social media platform popular for letting users share, or pin, items of interest to a virtual board.
In earlier years, Pinterest had occasionally faced access issues from China but those seem to have become permanent since the middle of last week, GreatFire said.
The blockade coincides with the celebration -- from March 5 to 15 -- of the annual session of China's legislature, the biggest annual political event of the Communist government, during which censorship and pressure against human rights activists are stepped up, Efe news reported.
Efe news, also verified that the photo sharing site could not be accessed from computers in Beijing or Shanghai on Friday.
Pinterest, did not respond to a request for comment outside of business hours. China's Cyberspace Administration did not respond to a request for comment, as per CNN reports.
Pinterest was one of the few social media sites still accessible on Chinese territory, where Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Google Plus, Snapchat, Line and Telegram have been blocked for some time now.
Other websites censored in China include the Google search engine and the video sharing website YouTube, although many denizens in the country find ways to access the blocked sites.
According to Khaleej Times, Pinterest President Tim Kendall had said last year that the site "isn't a social network" but a "catalogue of ideas" which according to him, explained why it was still allowed in China.
The Western sites were widely used to share content China would deem highly sensitive, like the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests, Tibet, or the Dalai Lama.
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