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NYT: China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship

K

Kthulhu

Member
SHANGHAI — China has largely blocked the WhatsApp messaging app, the latest move by Beijing to step up surveillance ahead of a big Communist Party gathering next month.

The disabling in mainland China of the Facebook-owned app is a setback for the social media giant, whose chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has been pushing to re-enter the Chinese market, and has been studying the Chinese language intensively. WhatsApp was the last of Facebook products to still be available in mainland China; the company’s main social media service has been blocked in China since 2009, and its Instagram image-sharing app is also unavailable.

In mid-July, Chinese censors began blocking video chats and the sending of photographs and other files using WhatsApp, and they stopped many voice chats, as well. But most text messages on the app continued to go through normally. The restrictions on video, audio chats and file sharing were at least temporarily lifted after a few weeks.

WhatsApp now appears to have been broadly disrupted in China, even for text messages, Nadim Kobeissi, an applied cryptographer at Symbolic Software, a Paris-based research start-up, said on Monday. The blocking of WhatsApp text messages suggests that China’s censors may have developed specialized software to interfere with such messages, which rely on an encryption technology that is used by few services other than WhatsApp, he said.

“This is not the typical technical method in which the Chinese government censors something,” Mr. Kobeissi said. He added that his company’s automated monitors had begun detecting disruptions of WhatsApp in China on Wednesday, and that by Monday the blocking efforts were comprehensive.

Facebook declined to comment, following past practice when asked about WhatsApp’s difficulties in China.

Lokman Tsui, an internet communications specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that WhatsApp seemed to have been severely disrupted starting on Sunday. But he said that some WhatsApp users might still be able to use the service.

The Chinese authorities have a history of mostly, but not entirely, blocking internet services, as well as slowing them down so much that they become useless. The censorship has prompted many in China to switch to communications methods that function smoothly and quickly but that are easily monitored by the Chinese authorities, like the WeChat app of the Chinese internet company Tencent, which is based in Shenzhen
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More at the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/business/china-whatsapp-blocked.html

Restrict my freedom of speech if old.
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
Oddly enough I was chatting with my Dad who was traveling in China, on WhatsApp just the other day. Thankfully he’s in Malaysia now.
 
S

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
Scary just how bad they don’t want us looking in. This is just patching another peephole to them.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
SnakeXs said:
Scary just how bad they don’t want us looking in. This is just patching another peephole to them.
Click to expand...

More like they don't want their people looking out.

The whole point of this is to get around WhatsApp's encryption. China has access to WeChat's data, ensuring that they can spy as many people as possible.
 
S

Somnid

Member
WhatsApp uses domain fronting which will be an interesting challenge for China. Either they will spend ridiculous amounts of effort and resources in traffic profiling, collaterally kill other websites or Whatsapp will live yet.

Edit: my bad it was signal
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
Dynamite Shikoku said:
Too many Winnie the pooh pictures?
Click to expand...

XS5LK.gif
 
S

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
A bunch of friends took jobs in Shanghai this year and they've suddenly gone silent on whatsapp, I suppose this explains it. A shame, fuckass Chinese government.
 
D

dragonelite

Member
Makes sense to promote your own social media networks that you can control, people act like western social media network haven't been weaponized by Russia or the US.

If it is the correct thing to do really depends
If your western or chinese.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
dragonelite said:
Makes sense to promote your own social media networks that you can control, people act like western social media network haven't been weaponized by Russia or the US.

If it is the correct thing to do really depends
If your western or chinese.
Click to expand...

Not really no. This is a transparent attempt to shut down free speech, and arguably protectionism.

Facebook, Twitter, and other sites allowing ads to be placed on their site by a foreign government that exist for the purpose of manipulating an election and sowing discord amongst the general public, isn't really an apt comparison.
 
N

numble

Member
Hasphat'sAnts said:
Apple will cave long before iMessage gets banned.
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They have disabled features in China before. For instance, FaceTime Audio is disabled and Apple News is not available. I think they would disable iMessage and turn it into an SMS service before they build some method for a government to access iMessage data, which I understand is not possible the way it is built with end-to-end encryption. Especially since it would mean giving the Chinese government access to foreign iMessage data.
 
H

Hasphat'sAnts

Member
dragonelite said:
Makes sense to promote your own social media networks that you can control, people act like western social media network haven't been weaponized by Russia or the US.

If it is the correct thing to do really depends
If your western or chinese.
Click to expand...

It's arguably against WTO rules to do this. If China wants to be free trade wheeler/dealer, they can't pull this sort of stunts. Well, shouldn't.

numble said:
They have disabled features in China before. For instance, FaceTime Audio is disabled and Apple News is not available. I think they would disable iMessage and turn it into an SMS service before they build some method for a government to access iMessage data, which I understand is not possible the way it is built with end-to-end encryption. Especially since it would mean giving the Chinese government access to foreign iMessage data.
Click to expand...

Fine. If iMessage does leave the market, surely it's not for a lack of trying on Apple's part to comply with government mandates.
 
S

Somnid

Member
dragonelite said:
Makes sense to promote your own social media networks that you can control, people act like western social media network haven't been weaponized by Russia or the US.

If it is the correct thing to do really depends
If your western or chinese.
Click to expand...

No it doesn’t, especially not when your own government is the one weaponizing using it.
 
G

Grazzt

Member
I’m surprised it took them so long to ban WhatsApp.
Also it reminds me one of my Chinese classmates told me once that he had more freedom in China.
 
S

SRG01

Member
sant said:
I think unrest in China is inevitable
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There's always unrest in China; you can literally Google 'unrest in china' for stories.

Actual political and socioeconomic instability, however, isn't -- as long as the (shadow) banking sector remains operational, at least.
 
M

M3d10n

Member
jellies_two said:
They don't have iMessage access so how long before that's banned too.
Click to expand...
I always assumed Apple either gave them access years ago or it's always green bubbles in China, since Apple deals directly with the Chinese government (which is why their App Store is mostly unscathed).
 
K

kami_sama

Member
OK, so it seems only QQ and WeChat are the options there.
Not that I have anyone to chat there right now, but it must suck for someone that uses whatsapp and has to go there.
 
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