Facebook and Instagram are blocked in China. And the last cartridge that Mark Zuckerberg has left in the Asian country is the most used messaging service in the world: WhatsApp. Nevertheless, The popular service has been the new victim of The Great Firewall.
According to reports from the New York Times, the 19th Congress of the Communist Party is just around the corner. And to ensure that the image of the Head of State is not compromised, the measures have been able to be hardened in the last hours.
Although the most popular messaging service in china is WeChat, Facebook's product has also gained a growing market share among Asian users. And the WhatsApp users themselves have been in charge of sounding the alarm. According to different testimonies, the affected services have been the sending of photographs and videos. Although apparently, some voice messages would have also been intercepted.
Also, the control measures in China do not stop here. Many of the users used virtual private networks (VPNs) to be able to use services prohibited by the regime. Well, in recent months applications that facilitated these uses have disappeared. And if it was not enough, It is confirmed that in February 2018, this type of network will be completely prohibited.
On the other hand, since the end of last year 2016, China has forced technology companies to store all data in the country through local servers. This was the reason why Apple - among others - had to recently open its first Asian data center.
Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Telegram are just some of the banned products in China. WhatsApp could be the next member of the growing list, although it might not be the last. As indicated, the next target could be another one of the instant messaging applications. To be more specific, it would be Signal. This messaging service was recommended by Eduard Snowden himself.