Great Firewall of China toughens up on social media

The Great Firewall of China has become even tougher to break past for social media enthusiasts in the country as it has taken a tougher stand against such services.

China has historically blocked and censored its internet traffic for some time and it seems things are only going to get worse in the future as the country is reported to have revamped the so-called firewall, effectively making it a very arduous task to access social media websites in the country.

Until recently, access to Google services such as search and, to some extent, Gmail was blocked in China but some users were able to access them using VPN and various tunneling services. Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have also been subject to such censorship in the country. Now, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, China has made changes to its censorship system and will make it even harder to access these websites using the various bypassing methods.

The report suggests that certain VPN services have started facing disruptions and the blocking system is allegedly automated, making it easier to detect any access to blocked services from the country. A VPN provider from Romania has revealed that smarter VPN rules could still get past the mechanism but it may just be a matter of time until China zeroes in on those.

Source: Wall Street Journal