Raising the Great Firewall Too High
Blocked stories still find their way onto social media feeds.
Photographer: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesWill it be R.I.P. for China's VPNs? On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese government had ordered telecommunications providers to block access to individual virtual private networks by Feb. 1. VPNs are popular and widely utilized services that allow internet users to bypass web restrictions. In effect, the new rules would block the most popular means for Chinese netizens to see beyond the so-called Great Firewall.
The Chinese government has been moving in this direction for a long time. But, up until this year, it seemed to have struck an uneasy balance between its desire to control information and the desires of its most educated and cosmopolitan citizens to engage with the rest of the world online. A VPN ban would both upset that balance and endanger several prized government initiatives designed to foster a more innovative Chinese economy. While there's little doubt the government can get its way, the costs could be higher than officials expect.