Amazon Cloud Customers Are Told: Don't Bypass China's internet Gates
August 01 2017 - 6:53PM
Dow Jones News
By Liza Lin in Shanghai and Jay Greene in Seattle
Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud-computing customers in China are being
told to stop using software to bypass China's internet gates, part
of a government clampdown.
Amazon Web Services' Chinese partner, Beijing Sinnet Technology
Co. Ltd., sent out emails to its users asking them to delete tools
enabling them to circumvent the country's vast system of internet
filters. Some of the tools that clients use include virtual private
networks, or VPNs.
"Sinnet is responsible for ensuring that its customers in China
comply with local laws and their notice was intended to remind
customers of their obligations," an Amazon spokeswoman said via
email.
Sinnet cited requests from China's public security ministry and
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in making the
demands. A person familiar with the matter said there is no change
in the way Amazon's services work in China.
Customers of Amazon, along with those of Apple Inc., are facing
pressure in China to comply with the Chinese government's desire to
further tighten the screws on its already heavily policed
internet.
On Saturday, Apple removed software from its app store in China
that allowed users to circumvent the country's web filters. The
Cupertino, Calif., technology company cited new rules that require
providers of VPNs, which are often used to get around Chinese
internet firewalls, to obtain licenses from regulators.
Complaints of disruptions affecting users of overseas VPNs in
China have multiplied recently. Facebook Inc.'s encrypted WhatsApp
messaging service has also been affected, with users finding it
difficult or extremely slow to send messages.
VPNs, employed by a small minority of Chinese internet users,
allow users to circumvent the country's tight internet controls.
They are vital to hundreds of businesses, media organizations,
research institutions and other groups that rely on the ability to
connect with the wider internet. They are also used by individuals
who want to jump over China's Great Firewall to see blocked content
such as Facebook, YouTube and certain foreign news sites.
Chinese authorities have clamped down on everything from
internet browsing to live-streaming websites and social media in
the run-up to an important Communist Party conclave in the fall, at
which most of the country's top leaders are set to be replaced.
VPN providers say the breadth and intensity of the crackdown
makes them fear it could last beyond a leadership handover.
"Although China has implemented blocks and one-off censorship
events in the past, it feels different this time, due to the events
occurring and their rapid succession," said Sunday Yokubaitis,
president of Golden Frog GmbH, provider of VyprVPN.
--Josh Chin in Beijing contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 01, 2017 18:38 ET (22:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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