Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Apr 26, 2024

Man punished for using a VPN to scale China’s Great Firewall and watch porn

Unauthorised VPNs are illegal in China, but authorities said the man’s main crime was accessing pornography. Police said the man used software designed specifically to circumvent the Great Firewall

A man in southern China received administrative punishment after he bypassed the country’s strict internet censorship system to watch porn, state media reported on Wednesday.

The man, surnamed Chen, was apprehended by the local police in the city of Jinshi, located in Hunan province. The police said Chen was using an app called Shadowrocket, which allows users to connect to proxy servers using the censorship circumvention tool Shadowsocks, among other protocols.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) are the most common tools used in China to hop the country’s Great Firewall that blocks access to foreign websites and apps. Facebook, Google and several of the world’s top news sites are all blocked in the country. But Chinese authorities introduced new regulations in 2017 that require VPN providers to officially register with the state, which led Apple to purge VPN apps from its iOS App Store in China.

Some circumvention techniques are more advanced – like Shadowsocks. While often referred to as a VPN, Shadowsocks is technically a disguised SOCKS5 proxy specifically designed to get around the Great Firewall.

While VPNs and Shadowsocks encrypt internet traffic, authorities suggested they were still able to figure out what Chen was browsing. Police said Chen’s main crime was accessing pornographic websites, according to the media report, which cites a now-deleted WeChat post from the city’s public security bureau.

Police didn’t say how they discovered Chen’s online activities. But encryption isn’t necessarily enough to protect users depending on where that data is going. Shadowrocket doesn’t provide any servers itself, just the software used to connect to them.

Authorities didn’t say what Chen’s punishment was, but the Jinshi police hinted at what it could be. They said that people using their own channels to access international networks could be fined up to 15,000 yuan (US$2,142). Those that sell the service could even face prison time.

Some people have already been arrested for selling VPN services in China. A man was arrested for it in 2017, where he was sentenced to five and a half years in prison and fined US$76,000. Police said another man, arrested earlier this year, made US$1.6 million from selling VPNs since 2016.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×