Amazon has joined the ranks of companies enforcing China’s strict regulations on online content, seemingly instructing Chinese AWS operators to warn that customers’ websites will be taken down if they make use of virtual private networks (VPNs), or software that could be used to bypass Chinese Internet censorship regulations.
Local cloud operator and AWS partner Beijing Sinnet Technology sent an email to its customers stating that “if users don’t comply with the guidance, the offered services and their websites can be shut down,” according to a report by the NY Times. “We the operators also check routinely if any of our users use these softwares or store illegal content.”
Tightening the grip
Despite already stringent regulations, the country has doubled down controlling citizens’ access to online content. A new law was recently introduced by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stipulating that all software developers offering VPNs must obtain a license from government.
Further cybersecurity legislation, which came into effect in June, requires that all foreign firms storing personal and business data must do so within the confines of Chinese borders, and must provide so-called technical support to security agencies and go through national security reviews.
The legal framework is said to be to protect “the security and credibility of the Internet,” but has raised concerns of foreign commerce and human rights institutions who see it as an attack on international trade and online freedom.
And, after the Great Firewall, the country recently rolled out ‘The Great Cannon,’ a filter tool which can not only intercept and redirect foreign web traffic aimed at Chinese websites, but may even be able to spy on anyone who accesses content hosted in China - however, it is worth noting that this is similar to a tool already used by US and UK intelligence services for surveillance purposes.
China has also put a partial block on WhatsApp services, sporadically blocking photo, video and voice messages from being sent via the encrypted messaging application. To date this had been the only Facebook owned service still accessible in China.
Last week, Apple pulled from its Chinese app store, over 60 censorship avoiding apps which helped users to bypass the so-called Great Firewall by providing VPNs from which banned websites such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter could be accessed.
China is willing to risk economic loss in the name of censorship. The Great Cannon, which could see troves of traffic redirected away from popular Chinese websites such as Baidu and Alibaba, may dissuade foreign users and by extension investors, while foreign companies like Apple and Amazon might have refused to comply with regulations, had their dependence on Chinese business not been so great.
As it turned out, such is Apple’s reliance on Chinese custom that it will be building a data center in the country to comply with its data sovereignty laws.