Changes to ‘great firewall of China’ block censorship detour

One of the unfortunate realities of living in China is the need for a virtual private network (VPN) to get round the controls known as "the great firewall of China" to access the full internet, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

China is now “upgrading” the great firewall to block VPNs, which function as a kind of tunnel out of China to access the full internet and override China’s online censorship.

China has stepped up its monitoring of online content recently, ostensibly to control pornographic material, but the firewall also stops dissent reaching the country’s online sites.

One of the most popular VPNs, Astrill, said last week that its external networks were no longer working in China. The crackdown on VPNs meant many iPhone users were unable to log into Facebook and Twitter accounts, although they had bought Astrill’s VPN service.

"It is because of the great firewall upgrade, and unfortunately, we can't tell you the exact time [about how long it will last]," an anonymous service support employee told the Global Times, which is a sister paper of the Communist Party's official organ, the People's Daily.

New applications

On Twitter, Astrill said it was working on new applications that would work in China, and expected them to be available by the end of the week.

“We know how access to unrestricted internet is important for you, so our fight with Chinese censors is not over,” Astrill said.

A few years ago, one of the most popular VPNs, Witopia, said it had received a lot of complaints from China, while another, VPN Express, was also down at the same time, but they all managed to get back online.

"Authorities apparently cannot ignore those services as they affect our cyberspace sovereignty. For instance, a shortcut has to be blocked since it could be used for some ulterior purposes, although it might affect others who use it in a right way," Qin An, of the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, told the Global Times.

Many Chinese people use VPNs – indeed Fang Binxing, creator of the great firewall, signed up to six VPNs to access websites he had originally helped block. However, many users are worried about being traced through credit cards and questioned about what they are using the wider internet for.