[Infowarrior] - China's cracking down on VPNs to make Great Firewall stronger

[Richard Forno]

China's cracking down on VPNs to make Great Firewall stronger

It will soon be tougher to gain access to Twitter and Facebook inside the country for some users.

by Aloysius Low
July 4, 2017 12:41 AM PDT

https://www.cnet.com/news/chinas-cracking-down-on-vpns-to-make-great-firewall-stronger

China's clamping down on users who rely on virtual private networks (VPN) to break free of its notorious internet filter.

Dubbed the Great Firewall, the filter blocks access to news sites deemed undesireable by the Chinese government as well as social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, platforms the Chinese government has no control over. To bypass the restrictions, users have been using a VPN, which routes traffic to servers overseas free of the filters, but this may not be an option soon.

GreenVPN has stated that its service will be unavailable after July 1, the company having been given orders by regulatory departments to cease operating, reported Bloomberg. It's likely not the only one, as the report also claims SuperVPN, another popular service, is being blocked.

Chinese businesses and startups often rely on VPNs to access Facebook and Twitter to engage customers and fans. They may soon find themselves locked out of the western markets if the Chinese government continues its crackdown going into its leadership renewal event in October, the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Congress. China has also clamped down previously on local social media platforms like Weibo to block "negative talk."