China blocks WhatsApp features in crackdown on messaging app (original) (raw)
WhatsApp users in China have reported problems with the messaging app sparking fears the service could have been blocked by authorities following Liu Xiaobo's death in prison.
People trying to access WhatsApp from within China said they were having difficulties with the app and were unable to send or receive picture and voice messages.
Some users reported that the only way to use the app properly was through tools that circumvent the country's strict internet blocks, dubbed the Great Firewall.
@chinaorgcn does the great firewall now cover Whatsapp too because it has not been working since yesterday evening ???
— HRH👑 (@bhevho) 18 July 2017
so even WhatsApp is not working properly in this country :) can't send/receive pix.
very well, god saves u, no, godspeed u.— Yh Zhu (@scattercran) 18 July 2017
anyone know what happened to whatsapp in China?
— Axes Fung (@Axes1984) July 18, 2017
The problems have led users to speculate that the Chinese Government could have partially blocked WhatsApp, which offers users more privacy from spying authorities than alternative apps because it uses end-to-end encryption.
It comes after reports earlier this week that Chinese authorities were intercepting and deleting WeChat messages commemorating Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Laureate who died after years of imprisonment in the country.
Citizen Lab, a monitoring project at the University of Toronto, said images related to Xiaobo were blocked in private messages, group chats and on WeChat's Moments feed following his death.
"Chinese social media companies receive greater government pressure around critical or sensitive events," said Citizen Lab. "Our findings document a significant shift in censorship after Liu Xiaobo's death."
China also appears to have blocked all results on Xiaobo from the Weibo search engine.
Flowers commemorating Liu Xiaobo, who has been wiped from China's search engine Weibo Credit: AP
Nadim Kobeissi, a cryptography researcher looking at the WhatsApp problems, told the AP picture and voice messages appeared to be blocked, but that text was still working.
It is highly unlikely Chinese authorities could circumvent WhatsApp's encryption to read or alter sent messages, as they can in WeChat, Kobeissi said. But other researchers suggested the Government could eventually block WhatsApp altogether.
"It would not be surprising to find that everything on WhatsApp gets blocked, forcing users in China to use unencrypted, monitored and censored services like WeChat," a censorship researcher who goes by the name Charlie Smith told the AP.
Authorities have long said social media poses a threat to national security and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been inaccessible from within China for a number of years.