Social Media in China: What's Banned and What Works

App	Chinese networks	Roaming eSIM	VPN
FacebookChecked Oct 23, 2026	Blocked	Varies	Works
InstagramChecked Oct 8, 2026	Blocked	Varies	Works
RedditChecked Oct 23, 2026	Blocked	Varies	Works
TikTokChecked Oct 23, 2026	Blocked	Varies	Varies
X (Twitter)Checked Oct 23, 2026	Blocked	Varies	Works
YouTubeChecked Oct 8, 2026	Blocked	Varies	Varies
LinkedInChecked Oct 8, 2026	Unreliable	Varies	Works

What social media is banned in China

Most big Western platforms are blocked on Chinese mobile data and Wi-Fi. The UK government lists Facebook, YouTube and X as permanently blocked, and a July 2026 guide in the Bega District News lists Instagram and Reddit as blocked too. When each block began:

• Facebook: July 2009, after deadly riots in Xinjiang, TechCrunch reported. Messenger is blocked as well.
• X (Twitter): June 2, 2009, ahead of the Tiananmen Square anniversary, the Associated Press reported.
• Instagram: September 2014, during pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, PCWorld reported.
• Reddit: August 2018, The China Project reported.
• TikTok: not offered in China. TikTok said in 2019 that it “does not operate in China”, and GreatFire’s test page for www.tiktok.com answers “No” to whether it opens from mainland China.
• YouTube: March 2009, when Google reported a sharp fall in YouTube traffic from China, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.

The table above shows how each app does on a roaming eSIM and a VPN. WhatsApp and Telegram are blocked too: see messaging apps in China.

What social media is not banned in China

Chinese platforms work without a VPN. GreatFire, which tests websites from mainland China, answers “Yes” to whether the sites of Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Zhihu open there. It lists WeChat’s site as not blocked.

Reports on LinkedIn are mixed. GreatFire found LinkedIn’s site not blocked on October 3, 2026, but marks its feed and jobs pages as intermittent. LinkedIn itself says LinkedIn.com is not currently accessible for individual members on the Chinese mainland. We list it as unreliable.

What people in China use instead

People in China use WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Zhihu instead.

• WeChat: China’s all-in-one app for messaging, calls and payments, says MyChinaGuide, which makes a China travel app. Tencent says WeChat and Weixin, the version for mainland Chinese numbers, had 1,439 million monthly active users combined at the end of June 2026. See WeChat in China.
• Weibo: a Twitter-like site, according to the magazine The World of Chinese. Weibo reported 561 million monthly active users in June 2026.
• Douyin: the domestic Chinese version of TikTok, from the same company, ByteDance, TechNode says.
• Xiaohongshu (RedNote): typically thought of as China’s answer to Instagram, TechCrunch says.
• Zhihu: began as a question-and-answer site similar to Quora, TechCrunch says.

Is social media banned in China for tourists?

Yes, on Chinese networks: the block is on the network, not on you. The Bega District News told Australian tourists that on hotel or café Wi-Fi, or a SIM card bought on arrival, these apps will still be blocked. Marina Zhang of the University of Technology Sydney told the paper that with international roaming on, she can use Google, WhatsApp and other services that would normally be blocked on Chinese Wi-Fi or a local SIM.

The UK government says VPNs need to be licensed by the Chinese government, and that posting political statements critical of China or the Chinese authorities could be viewed as illegal. Read Is a VPN legal in China? before you go.

How to use blocked social media apps in China

Set up a roaming eSIM that routes your data abroad, or a VPN, before you fly. eSIM or VPN for China? explains the difference.

• Roaming eSIM. Airalo, which sells eSIMs, says its China, Regional Asia and Global eSIMs route traffic through gateways outside mainland China, so you get full access to blocked sites “as long as you are using your eSIM data (and not the hotel Wi-Fi)”. Salil Kanhere, a cybersecurity expert at UNSW, told the Bega District News that certain travel eSIMs bypass mainland filtering through offshore gateways such as Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia, so check where a plan’s data comes out. Compare plans on our eSIM page.
• VPN. MyChinaGuide says a VPN still matters on laptops and hotel Wi-Fi, but that VPNs have become noticeably unreliable since a crackdown in April 2026. Test yours at home, and check which VPN works in China now.

TikTok is harder: Notes from China, a travel blog with affiliate links, says it shows a black screen on an eSIM that routes through Hong Kong. See TikTok in China.

Social media in China: what Reddit users say

Reddit users say Weibo has lost ground to newer Chinese apps, and that blocked apps work on roaming data but not on Wi-Fi. These are individual reports, not tests.

• September 2026. In r/chinalife, one user said Weibo is still the closest thing to X but that people have moved on, and several named Douyin and Xiaohongshu.
• May 2026. A traveler who had just landed wrote on r/travelchina that Reddit, Instagram and TikTok worked “like I’m back home”. Replies said that was because they were roaming, and that the apps would stop working on Wi-Fi.
• June 2026. One traveler said they had been posting to Instagram and Facebook on a travel eSIM without problems. Another said it works with everything but TikTok.