Online access rights are tightening again in China – at least that’s the experience of many people online behind the ‘Great Firewall of China’. Key tools such as VPN, alongside global media properties such as MSN seem to be targeted as part of a broad change in access rights in China. Big implications for multinationals working in China, as well as a reminder of how unsettled the changing internet regulatory frameworks are…
Many global media properties are affected including Google’s sites and the MSN portal. Common corporate tools such as the virtual private networks (VPN) that allow machines to work remotely through other PCs have also been hit, probably because many Chinese citizens have used VPN to get around blocked websites. VPN allows users to work through another machine through a single IP address which is not blocked, enabling the remote PC to access blocked sites and relay the content through a friendly IP connection. Other services that are believed to be affected are news properties and apps stores.
In the 90s, the IP addresses of Western media were regularly blocked. Publishers reported seeing the sudden switching off of Chinese audiences in ways that were clearly policy decisions even if never formally admitted. Over the last five years, Google’s adjustment of Chinese search results has been one of the clearest international signs of the caution Chinese policy makers have towards unrestricted access to information. More recently, social media properties like Twitter and Facebook have continued to have an uneasy relationship with Chinese authorities, something that the recent events in the Arab world are only likely to strengthen.
Details of the current changes are sketchy but this wave of restrictions seems to be more focussed on universities and corporate connections than domestic connections. It comes at a time when the regulatory framework for digital media in China is changing with the introduction of a new authority. Disruption began in the first week of May around the same time as the new authority was being announced. Free speech advocates Global Voices connected the disruption to new monitoring processes that watch traffic through routers manage data connections in and out of the country
While most international websites are unaffected, the changes will be of concern to the wider investment community as they suggest unclear market demand from the largest potential internet market. In the short term commercially this will be good news for Baidu, RenRen, Ali group and other national Chinese brands as new customer acquisition is likely to increase at a faster rate.