Facebook launched a Chinese-language version of the site less than two weeks ago, but users are already running into problems accessing the social-networking service. Governmental crackdown on wall posting? Mere technological glitches? No one seems to know at this juncture, because China doesn't actually comment on its Internet censorship policy. But there are a few theories being floated.

CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen was the first to post about the service interruption, claiming that Facebook was shut off in China because "Mark Zuckerberg refused to play by their rules and told them to go fuck themselves," but that doesn't appear to be entirely true: some users in China are reporting that access is "off and on", while others have been totally unaffected. The Wall Street Journal notes that it's impossible to tell if the site is uniformly being censored because enforcement often varies between regions and even between service providers.

A Facebook spokesperson e-mails: "We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in China are having difficulty getting access to Facebook. We have not made any changes to our site that would create access problems and are looking into the situation."

There are currently only about 250,000 Chinese Facebook users, but censorship is expected to be major issue when droves of foreigners used to unfettered access descend upon the country for the Olympic Games in August. The International Olympic Committee has tried to lobby China to lift its censorship policy during the festivities, but the government has thus far only agreed to "guarantee as much [access] as possible." Whatever that means! Don't expect to be joining a Facebook group that raises awareness about the plight of Tibetan monks anytime soon.