China's great firewall grows ever-stronger as VPNs disappear

People who follow the news closely might have anticipated the coming of a full VPN ban

China's notorious Great Firewall makes it difficult — but not impossible — for Chinese netizens to access sites like Twitter, Facebook, western news outlets like the New York Times, and thousands of other websites, not to mention Global Voices.

For years, netizens in China (and other countries with heavy restrictions on Internet content) have used virtual private networks (VPNs) that allow them to circumvent censorship by creating a secure and well-hidden connection to another network in a different geographic location.

But their days using VPNs may be numbered.

Netizens are anticipating that the majority of VPN apps serving individuals’ needs will be taken