Facebook is a social networking service that has been gradually replacing traditional media channels since 2010. Facebook has limited moderation of the content posted to its site. Because the site indiscriminately displays material publicly posted by users, Facebook can, in effect, threaten oppressive governments. Facebook can simultaneously propagate fake news, hate speech, and misinformation, thereby undermining the credibility of online platforms and social media.

Many countries have banned or temporarily limited access to Facebook. Use of the website has also been restricted in various ways in other countries. As of 2024, the only countries to continually ban access to the social networking site are: China, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uganda. However, since most North Korean residents have no access to the Internet, China, Russia, and Iran are the only countries where access to Facebook is actively restricted in a wholesale manner, although it is possible to access the site through onion services.

Online censorship by Facebook of algorithmic methods raises concerns including the surveillance of all instant communications and the use of machine learning systems with the potential for errors and biases. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO and majority shareholder, published a memo on censorship. "What should be the limits to what people can express?" he asked. "What content should be distributed and what should be blocked? Who should decide these policies and make enforcement decisions?"

Like France and Germany, Austria has laws prohibiting Holocaust denial. This caused 78 Facebook posts to be banned from the country in 2013.

Bangladesh (like Iran, China and North Korea) had banned Facebook before. The ban operated for about a month, precisely from November to December 2015. The Awami League-led government of Bangladesh announced a countrywide ban on Facebook and other social-network websites. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (in office from 2009) proposed the establishment of an Internet monitoring committee with the help of Bangladesh's intelligence services. Right-wing political parties and groups in Bangladesh protested against bloggers and others they had considered "blasphemous" at the time of the proposal. Extremists in the country had murdered eight secularists, including atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was fatally stabbed in February 2013. National riots over the country's war-crimes trials resulted in the deaths of 56 people between 19 January 2013 and 2 March 2013.

On 18 November 2015, the same Awami League government banned Facebook again on the eve of the final judgement of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury. Both the politicians and previous minister have been issued a death sentence by the War Criminals Tribunal and the review board of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has finally given their judgement in favour of the previously given one.

The Bangladesh government lifted the ban on 20 December 2015.

In China, Facebook was blocked following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots because protestors with the East Turkestan independence movement were using Facebook as part of their communications network to organize attacks across the city; Facebook refused to release the protestor identities and information to the Chinese government. Some Chinese users also believed that Facebook would not succeed in China after Google China's problems in 2013. Renren (formerly Xiaonei) has many features similar to Facebook, and complies with PRC Government regulations regarding content filtering.