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Even though the Twitter website itself has been blocked on mainland China since 2009, news of Twitters successful IPO was still widely covered by Chinese national media. While Chinas ban on Twitter left room for social media successes like Sina Weibo, Chinas version of the microblogging platform and the countrys most popular social media site, it doesnt mean they dont know it exists.

Still that didnt stop people from making jokes about it online. While chatter on the IPO lit up Twitter itself, people in China took to their Weibo accounts to crack jokes about the multi-billion dollar invisible website.

A website that cant even open is now worth $24 billion? Its a crazy world were living in! one blogger posted, according to the South China Morning Post. Twitter is like a ghost, because youve only heard about it, but no one has ever seen it, another joked.

While there were jokes aplenty, the conversation unsurprisingly turned into a debate on censorship. Another blogger pointed out that the jokes about Twitters non-existence says a lot about Chinas immense censorship power. This is the moment you realize that China is so apart from the rest of the world, one New-York based Weibo blogger wrote. The post, which was commented on over 3,000 times after it was posted, became a point of argument. Considering the average American knows very little about the world outside their country, who is really apart? one blogger wrote in response. We have our own, better version [of the platform], how are we set apart?

The blogger responded that it doesnt matter if Weibo is better, when you are limited of having basic choices. Those who say they dont even like using Twitter are missing the point, the blogger retorted. How can you be glad when you are deprived of the right in the first place?

Even with the inability to tweet, many Chinese netizens addressed the censorship with a dose of laughter. Here are more jokes about Twitters IPO found on Chinese social media:

I am calling the police they are letting a fake website go public.

I am worried about the bubbles in the US stock market -- how come a non-existent website walked away with that kind of money?

Wow, do you think I can also make money selling shares in my blank error page?

On Thursday, the San Francisco-based social media platform saw its stock soar from an IPO price of $26 to $44.90, a 73 percent increase, by the end of its first day on the New York Stock Exchange.

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China Discusses Twitter IPO Online: Netizens Crack Jokes About Censorship And Social Media

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REUTERS/Will Burgess

Amnesty International volunteers tie cloth gags across their mouths during a protest in central Sydney in July, 2008. They demonstrated against what they claim is the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance of internet users in China.

A new study by the Center for International Media Assistance has found that, over the last five years, China's media restrictionshave begun to seriously affect the reportage and operations of international organizations.

As China's international political and economic power has grown, so has international coverage. The number of foreign correspondents in the country has nearly doubled since 2002. As a result, the Chinese government has moved to use its increased clout to control international opinion and reportage.

The Communist Party thinks its now powerful enough to intimidate [non-Chinese], from business people to diplomats to academics and journalists, and its willing to throw its weight around, veteran China reporter Paul Mooney said. It has learned that this often works and is willing to do anything to protect its image and stop negative news from being reported.

The Communist Party of China engages in four main strategies for influencing international media, according to the study:

The study found that, during the last six years, foriegn journalists have been assaulted while reporting on land protests in Zhejiang and an activists trial in Sichaun, among other incidents.

In addition, journalists have expereinced delays in visa processing or had their applications rejected directly based on the content of their reporting. In 2013, ten percent of respondents reported difficulty obtaining press accreditation because of their reporting.In 2012, al-Jazeera Englishs Melissa Chan and the New York Times Chris Buckley were denied visa renewal and forced to leave the country, in what the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China called the most extreme example of using journalist visas to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents in China.

The other major facet of the Chinese censorship enterprise is the use of economic benefits or repercussions for businesses and publications, based on their coverage.

A few examples from the study:

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