The who, what and why in China’s latest VPN crackdown
The new campaign to stamp out ‘unauthorised’ providers is not expected to target individuals directly but could have big implications for companies based on the mainland
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a notice earlier this week that all unauthorised virtual private networks will be banned as the ministry rolls out a 14-month campaign to “clean up” and “regulate” internet connection services.
Who will be targeted?
It appears the crackdown will target Chinese businesses and individuals involved in providing unauthorised VPN services. The ministry said late on Tuesday that VPN networks of multinationals approved by Chinese authorities won’t be affected.
Individuals using VPNs on their computers or mobile phones will not be targeted directly. “As for VPN users in China, this new regulation doesn’t make using VPN illegal”, the website VPNDada.com said in a statement.
The regulation does not specifically address how the crackdown will affect providers outside China. In practice, Beijing has always tried to block such services that help Chinese internet users bypass the “Great Firewall”. In one infamous case, the US consulate in Shanghai in August last year published a Weibo post seeking “reliable” VPN service providers.