WhatsApp disrupted by China ahead of meeting of Communist party

Users have complained about problems for weeks about whats app coming on and off.

At times, the service has been completely blocked and only accessible via virtual private networks (VPNs) which circumvent China’s internet firewall.

WhatsApp is the only product of Facebook’ which has been allowed to operate in mainland China.

With the main social media service of Facebook along with its Instagram image sharing app not available to the mainland, WhatsApp is the only service available on the mainland.

According to the the local correspondents the WhatsApp messaging service had started going offline more than a week ago.

Through a test of the services on Tuesday it was revealed that users in China could not send video messages or photographs to people outside China.

The disruption has followed the restrictions which were imposed on WhatsApp video chats and photographs in the month of July, which had later been lifted.

The tightening of online censorship comes as China steps up security ahead of the Communist Party’s national congress which is held every five years.

“The run-up period to a gathering is normally a time of greater restrictions of all kinds to assure that the critical Party Congress is held under ideal social conditions and is not disrupted”, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, long-time advisor to China’s leaders and multinational corporations told the media.

However, he said it is not yet clear whether the restrictions will be relaxed as has happened after previous party congresses, adding that many analysts do not believe they will be.

WhatsApp has declined to comment on the latest clampdown.

Last week word started spreading around other platforms… “Is WhatsApp blocked?”

The replies would come in: “You need to use a VPN”. Then the VPNs were being blocked.

Welcome to online China in the run-up to the Communist Party Congress.

Taking out WhatsApp has no impact on most Chinese people. They don’t use it. The unrivalled king of cyberspace in this country is WeChat (or, in Chinese, Weixin 微信)

You would really struggle to find somebody here not using WeChat to send messages, share photos, swap locations, flirt, read news and pay for pretty much everything. This all-encompassing app at the centre of people’s lives is available for the Communist Party to spy on the entire population.

WhatsApp is not – at least not to the same extent.

So, during this sensitive time leading up to the once-in-five-years Party Congress, those with responsibility for censoring social media are nervous.

They worry that somebody may use an app beyond their complete control to, for example, organise a protest or post a funny photo of President Xi Jinping and for this to somehow go under their radar.

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