Social Media

Social Media#

Reference of major social-media and messaging platforms with notes on country-level accessibility. Block / restriction status changes frequently; this page is a snapshot. Verify against NetBlocks, OONI Explorer, AccessNow, and country-specific trackers for live data.

For OSINT collection from these platforms, see OSINT Sources and Public Web.

Major platforms#

Platform

Notes

Facebook

Meta. ~3B MAU. Blocked in CN, IR, KP. Throttled at times in RU, MM, TR, NG, ID.

Instagram

Meta. ~2B MAU. Blocked in CN, IR, KP. Throttled in RU since 2022.

WhatsApp

Meta. ~3B users. Blocked in CN, KP, AE, QA, SA, SY (varies).

Messenger

Meta. ~1B MAU.

X (formerly Twitter

) ~600M MAU. Blocked in CN, IR, KP, TM, MM. Periodic in NG, TR, PK, RU.

TikTok

ByteDance. ~1.6B MAU. Blocked in IN (since 2020), several government-network bans (US fed devices, EU, UK fed). PRC-mainland uses Douyin (separate app).

Douyin

ByteDance. CN-mainland counterpart to TikTok.

WeChat / Weixin

Tencent. ~1.4B MAU; the dominant CN super-app. Limited outside CN.

QQ

Tencent. ~600M MAU; legacy chat + games.

Sina Weibo

CN microblog. ~600M MAU.

Xiaohongshu (RED)

CN lifestyle / commerce social.

LinkedIn

Microsoft. ~1B users. Blocked in CN since 2024 (after operating a censored variant 2014-2024).

YouTube

Google. ~2.7B MAU. Blocked in CN, IR, KP, TM. Throttled in RU since 2024.

Snapchat

~800M MAU.

Pinterest

~500M MAU.

Reddit

~600M MAU. Blocked in CN, IN (briefly).

Tumblr

~250M MAU.

Discord

~150M MAU. Blocked in CN, IR, RU (2024).

Telegram

~900M MAU. Blocked at times in IR, RU, BR (briefly), TH (briefly).

Signal

Privacy-focused. Limited blocking; circumvented via TLS proxies.

Threads (Meta)

~150M MAU; X competitor (since 2023).

Bluesky

~25M users (2025); X migration option.

Mastodon (fediverse

) ~1.5M MAU active across instances.

Nostr

decentralized; censorship-resistant.

Regional / specialty#

Platform

Notes

VK (VKontakte)

RU; ~100M MAU; restricted in UA / EU.

OK (Odnoklassniki)

RU.

LINE

Mainly JP / TW / TH; ~200M MAU.

KakaoTalk

KR; ~50M MAU.

Naver Cafe / Band

KR community platforms.

Zalo

VN; ~70M MAU.

Bigo Live

SG / SEA / IN; livestreaming.

ShareChat

IN; vernacular social.

Moj, Josh

IN; short-video alternatives.

Kuaishou

CN; short video competitor to Douyin.

Bilibili

CN; video sharing.

Zhihu

CN; Q&A.

Mxhsky / Misskey

fediverse.

Quora

global Q&A.

Stack Exchange

technical Q&A.

Hacker News

tech news.

Lobste.rs

tech news.

Truth Social

US-political; ~5M MAU.

Gab, Parler, Gettr

alt-platforms.

Rumble

alt-video.

Odysee / LBRY

decentralized video.

PeerTube

decentralized video (fediverse).

Mighty Networks

paid-community SaaS.

Patreon, Substack

creator monetization.

Messaging / chat#

Platform

Notes

WhatsApp

See above.

Telegram

See above.

Signal

E2EE-by-default; widely used by journalists / activists.

iMessage

Apple ecosystem; E2EE within Apple.

Wire

E2EE; enterprise-focused.

Threema

Paid; CH; minimal metadata.

Session

Anonymous (no phone number); Tor-routed.

Briar

P2P / mesh; censorship-resistant.

Element / Matrix

Federated; many instances.

Rocket.Chat, Mattermost

Team chat (self-hosted).

Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat

Work chat.

Discord

See above.

IRC

still active; Libera.Chat, OFTC.

Skype

Microsoft; sunset 2025.

Zoom, Webex, Meet

meetings.

Jami, Tox

decentralized.

Country accessibility (high-level)#

The list below is a high-level snapshot. For real-time data, NetBlocks, OONI Explorer, and the GreatFire / Censored Planet projects publish per-country measurements.

Country

Restrictions (snapshot, 2026)

China

Blocks Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Google, Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Wikipedia (intermittent), most western media. WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili, RED dominate. VPN use is regulated.

North Korea

Domestic intranet only; international internet access limited to a small elite. No public access to global platforms.

Iran

Blocks Facebook, X, YouTube, Telegram (since 2018), Signal, LinkedIn, TikTok, WhatsApp (intermittent), Instagram (since 2022 protests). VPNs widely used; periodic crackdowns.

Russia

Throttles / blocks X (2022), Facebook (2022), Instagram (2022), LinkedIn (since 2016), Discord (2024), throttles YouTube (2024). VK, OK, Telegram dominate.

Turkmenistan

Heavily filtered; many global services blocked.

Eritrea

Severely restricted.

Saudi Arabia

Blocks adult content + occasional VoIP / messaging restrictions.

UAE

Blocks Skype / FaceTime / WhatsApp voice, Discord (intermittent).

Qatar

Blocks WhatsApp / FaceTime VoIP.

Pakistan

Periodic bans on TikTok, X, Facebook; YouTube blocked 2012-2016.

India

Blocked TikTok + 200+ Chinese apps since 2020. Region-specific internet blackouts (Kashmir, Manipur, etc.).

Myanmar

Blocks Facebook, Instagram, Telegram during civil-military conflict; sweeping internet shutdowns.

Egypt

Periodic platform throttling; Skype / VoIP restricted.

Sudan, Ethiopia

Recurrent shutdowns during unrest.

Belarus

Periodic blocks during protests / elections.

Vietnam

Cybersecurity Law requires data localization; periodic bans.

Cuba

Limited connectivity; restricted access.

Operator notes#

  • Live status, platform-by-country accessibility moves weekly. Use NetBlocks (netblocks.org), OONI Explorer (explorer.ooni.org), Censored Planet (censoredplanet.org), and AccessNow (accessnow.org/keepiton) for the live picture.

  • Mirror / circumvention, VPN, Tor, Snowflake, proxy bridges, mesh apps (Briar) all show up in restricted environments. Their use is itself often regulated.

  • Geofencing vs. blocking, some platforms voluntarily restrict content by region (TikTok in IN, X in DE for certain content); distinct from state-level blocks.

  • Side-loading and APK distribution, in restricted countries, app distribution shifts to direct APKs and third-party stores; consider when scoping reach.

  • Authorization, collection from these platforms is governed by their ToS and the operator’s jurisdiction’s law. See Web Scraping for the legal posture.

References#

Contents