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Tuesday, January 26, 2021
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As Censorship Grows Stronger, Chinese Authorities Issue Complete Ban on WhatsApp

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Censored written in white on black

The Chinese government managed to ban WhatsApp in the country

(Mirror Daily, United States) – Lately, WhatsApp has had plenty of conflicts with the Chinese authorities, which eventually led to a ban on the service in the entire country. The severe censorship in the country has waged war on the instant messaging service, and now most users within the Chinese borders can no longer use the app.

WhatsApp is now completely disabled in China

The Chinese government has started attacking WhatsApp when, in July, the sending of photos and videos has temporarily been disabled. Now, it seems to have taken the fight one step forward, as nobody in the country is able to use the service. Therefore, apart from photos and videos, they can no longer send messages either.

The government’s latest efforts against the messaging service started last week. Some users might still see the app is available and functional. However, until the beginning of next week, it is expected to go down in the entire country.

The authorities are not happy with the platform’s encryption

In fact, the Chinese authorities have started blocking the service some time ago. However, it took them some time to figure out how to overcome the encryptions used by WhatsApp to send messages. They managed to build a firewall which can detect the encryptions, and prevent the service from delivering the messages.

WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, which is extremely secure and private. This attracted the attention of the Chinese authorities, who decided to take it down. Too much encryption prevents them from keeping a close eye on their citizens, so they decided to ban the secure alternatives and force people to use something chosen by them.

This is a serious blow for the messaging platform. WhatsApp might have billions of users worldwide, but suddenly losing ground in a country like China can seriously affect the business. Facebook will suffer as well, since the website and app have already been banned in the country for a long time.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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Ryan Harris

Ryan has started his career as a web developer and designer before joining us. He enjoys the creativity work and loves experimenting with various techniques in both print and web. He covers the social media, technology and gadgets updates.

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