(Bloomberg) — WhatsApp has started working freely and consistently for some users in China despite a longstanding government ban on the messaging service, an unusual phenomenon for a country with some of the world’s toughest internet restrictions.
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Users of the Meta Platforms Inc. service in Beijing and Shanghai, who normally use workarounds like a virtual private network to access the service, send and receive messages without these tools. Other social media services such as Signal and Instagram remain banned, part of a broad blockade of foreign internet platforms that critics have dubbed the Great Firewall.
It is unclear how many people in China may have been browsing WhatsApp during this period. The phenomenon has not yet gained momentum on domestic social networks such as Weibo, a network similar to Twitter. Only a few million people are estimated to use Meta’s signature messaging tool in the country, compared to more than a billion for Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat. Representatives for WhatsApp declined to comment, while the Cyberspace Administration of China did not respond to a faxed query.
Read more: Apple removes WhatsApp from Chinese store at Beijing’s request
Beijing has banned the use of foreign messaging and social media platforms like WhatsApp for years, as part of a broader campaign to suppress potential dissent and tighten the Party’s control over content. This has helped apps like WeChat and Weibo dominate, even though Chinese users still use VPNs to view Western media. Like most foreign messaging platforms, WhatsApp messages are encrypted at both ends and are difficult to control.
Still, users in China have reported in the past being able to access blocked services and websites for brief periods, which industry experts attribute to issues with network restrictions. But at least some people in China’s two largest cities say they were able to send and receive WhatsApp messages over an uninterrupted two-week period – an unusually long period for the country.
At least one of the users said this period began around the time Apple Inc. removed WhatsApp and other social media services, including Threads and Signal, from its Chinese app store, responding to orders from Beijing to close more loopholes in the Internet firewall.
–With help from Kurt Wagner and Yanping Li.
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