There are a good number of reasons why people use VPNs. Whether it be to mask their location or to access content that is blocked locally either due to local censorship laws or due copyright/availability, there are many reasons why people choose to use it. There are plenty of services out there, but soon many of them will be made illegal in China.In a report from the South China Morning Post, it seems that the country’s Ministry of Industry has declared that all cable and VPN services will require government approval, in which failure to do so means that users caught using that particular VPN would be considered breaking the law.
The Ministry of Industry claims that this is part of a clean-up of the country’s internet and that this process will run until the 31st of March, 2018. “China’s internet connection service market … has signs of disordered development that require urgent regulation and governance.” They also add that this is part of the move to “strengthen cyberspace information security management”.
Several major VPN providers such as Vypr and Express have stated that they are aware of this and are looking into it. Vypr says that they are exploring ways around this while Express said that they will be releasing a statement soon.
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