The Chinese authorities have taken action on citizens attempting to get around online censorship systems. Three different Virtual Private Network providers have announced that China have updated their firewall to prevent Chinese web users from accessing forbidden sites. Chinese people have been using VPNs to access websites that would otherwise be blocked for many years.
Sites currently blocked include services from companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter. China place tough restrictions on their citizens’ web use, making it hard for them to discuss and search for information on various topics. VPNs make spying on the data being sent between computers incredibly difficult. China says that it has blocked VPNs “for safety”, whilst one expert working at a Government-backed think tank said that the changes were made to protect the country’s “cyberspace sovereignty”.
Prof Xiao Qjang of Berkeley’s School of Information said that the clampdown on VMPs was designed to thwart corruption by officials, saying that dangerous misinformation about China’s politics had been appearing on websites outside of the country before the changes were made. Nonetheless, China has not blocked VPNs used inside big corporations.
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