China Increased Censorship Last Year, and The Impact is Clear

Continually Increasing Censorship

Censorship in China unquestionably increased over the past year, as the country aggressively tightened their control over the Internet. In 2017 China introduced a great deal of new legislation and blocked additional sites and services to further restrict online access. This censorious trend continues into 2018, and includes the following events:

• Introduction of new legislation requiring registration of all Chinese domain names (websites)
• Censoring of mobile apps
• Public assertion that [unregistered] VPNs are “illegal”
• Blocking of more sites and tools including popular Pinterest and Skype
• Announcement of full VPN ban to take place February 2018
• Removal of 60+ VPN apps from Apple’s App Store in China
• Increased censorship ahead of Party Congress meeting
• Increasing instances of VPN blocking, utilizing new methods to do so

View all these censorship events in our infographic

Impacts of Censorship Witnessed Firsthand at VyprVPN

At VyprVPN we witnessed the results of increased Chinese censorship firsthand, as we saw increases in customer base, web traffic, and encrypted minutes out of China over the past year.

• 89%: Increase in encrypted minutes in second half of 2017 compared to first half
• 1000%: Growth in paid Chinese customer base over past 12 months
• 36%: Increase in website traffic from China over previous year

We’ll be continuing our coverage of censorship in China, including news, data, and tips on circumventing the Great Firewall. Check back each week for the latest content!