China Disrupts WhatsApp Service in Online Clampdown
By PAUL MOZURJULY 18, 2017
In recent weeks, the government has appeared to increase its grip, an online crackdown fed by a perfect storm of politically sensitive news, important events
and a new cybersecurity law that went into effect last month.
Instead of getting a new product into China, the internet giant now faces the reality
that its last app standing is under threat of being pushed outside the walls of Chinese censorship.
The new cybersecurity rules, broad and vague, have left Western companies uncertain of how they will be applied
and what impact they could have on a difficult operating environment.
In recent months, a number of virtual private networks, tools
that allow users in China to access the broader internet around the world, were removed from app stores or shut down.
