Facebook appears to have scrapped the country of Tibet, placing its capital Lhasa in China.
Campaigners on the TibetTruth website have pointed out that Tibetans cannot select their home town as Lhasa, Tibet. Instead, they are faced with the only option of Lhasa, Xizang, China.
In a statement released on their website, the campaigners say: "We are asking that Facebook kindly review its current profile format to enable Tibetans to select , as their hometown Lhasa, TIBET. Currently when Tibetans open an account they are denied that choice and can only select ‘Lhasa, Xizang, China’, an option that endorses the bogus claim that Tibet is part of China."
The name Xizang is the Mandarin term for the Tibetan Autonomous Region, according to Mashable.
China is currently listed on the Reporters Without Borders enemies of the internet list, for commonly suspending communications in cities or provinces over which it has lost control, such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
The TibetTruth website campaign asks concerned Facebook users to contact Facebook directly with their complaint.
Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden told The Huffington Post: "By denying Tibetans the right to identify their homeland as Tibet Facebook is contributing to China's systematic abuse of the Tibetan people.
This is smart online campaign that could not come at a more important time. In Tibet people are currently giving their lives to assert their national and political identity. Only today another young Tibetan has set himself on fire in protest at China's occupation of his homeland.The Chinese regime has for many decades used every means, including torture and detention to impose on the Tibetan people a belief that they are part of a one, harmonious China - which Tibetans have always rejected."
I would encourage anyone who cares about human rights to get in touch with Facebook and express your outrage, let's not forget we are Facebook.”
The group says that since March 2011, more than 20 people have set themselves on fire in protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and that self-immolations are becoming more widespread across Tibet.