The encrypted chat software Signal is not freely available in mainland China since this Monday (March 15), apparently another move by the Chinese government to once again tighten controls on foreign chat software. In addition, the Chinese government recently announced that it will revise the Internet Information Service Management Measures, which will raise the Great Firewall higher and higher and tighten controls.
Users in mainland China gave widespread feedback on the 15th of this month that the encrypted chat software Signal was no longer working properly. Public opinion widely sees the suspected blocking of Signal on the mainland as another move by Beijing to tighten tighter controls on Internet speech. After the blocking of chat software such as Telegram and Facebook’s WhatsApp, the Chinese government has once again turned its hand to Signal, the only remaining chat software, which must now be accessed by mainland users through a wall, and it is not known whether it is permanently blocked or only for sensitive periods. In addition, virtual private networks (VPNs) and other wall-flipping software that break the Internet blockade have long been characterized as “illegal” by the Chinese government.
Chinese Government Again Curtails Private Speech
Signal is an end-to-end chat encryption software that prevents any third party, including Signal’s servers, from viewing the content of Signal users’ chats. By virtue of its security and reliability, and the fact that it does not require a wall, Signal has amassed a large number of mainland users in recent years. But because its service agreement bypasses Chinese government Internet censorship, users have expressed concern that Signal would be blocked, and now their fears are becoming a reality.
A mainland Chinese lawyer, who declined to be named for security reasons, told the station that Signal has been inaccessible since Monday afternoon and has subsequently experienced login problems: “At first I couldn’t log in even when I hung a VPN, but now I can.”
The lawyer expressed surprise that Signal had survived so long on the mainland. He said it was the presence of harsh speech censorship and illegal access to personal information on WeChat that sparked user dissatisfaction, and Signal quickly became a platform where people could chat safely. However, Signal’s growing number of users drew an outright ban from the Chinese government. After Signal was banned, he said, there were fewer and fewer channels to communicate safely with other rights lawyers and democrats.
U.S. media outlet The Wall Street Journal, citing data from research firm Sensor Tower, said Signal’s downloads in Apple’s China App store had been steadily high for the past year, until February and March of this year, when they fell. The data shows that the total number of Signal downloads on Apple iOS in China is about 510,000, with Signal’s monthly installation peaking at 52,000 after the U.S. announced sanctions against WeChat in August last year. Upon investigation by our reporter, we found that Signal is still available for download in Apple’s China app store, but has been completely taken down on Android systems.
“The blocking and blocking of these foreign communication software and websites has always been the practice of the mainland government, and the Chinese government’s control in this area will only be strengthened and not weakened. No firewall then the mainland government can not fully block everyone informed (channels), the impact on them is great.” The lawyer believes that it is an inevitable trend that chat software that is not censored by the Chinese government has been walled. He said that for a long Time, a large number of pro-democracy and dissident activists would communicate with each other through Signal and similar software, which greatly exceeded the scope of the Chinese government’s control. The Chinese government could not force the parent company of encrypted chat software with servers located overseas to comply with China’s strict Internet censorship, so the Chinese government was bound to compress the space for free speech by raising firewalls and restricting the use of the software in the mainland.
New Internet regulations are being developed, and the firewall is getting higher and higher.
In an interview with Humane China, Zhou Fenglock, a former leader of the June Fourth Movement and founder of the human rights organization Humane China, said it was no surprise that Signal was walled in the mainland. Zhou mentioned that after the popular social media site Clubhouse soared in popularity last month, the Chinese government quickly set up a firewall to restrict mainland users from registering and logging into Clubhouse because it was afraid of users openly discussing politically sensitive topics such as Xinjiang and the 1989 student movement in the room: “This is a consistent practice of the Chinese Communist Party. It’s not an accident that Clubhouse and Signal were walled. The root of the problem is the firewall, which I think is a modern system of mental slavery, where Chinese people are imprisoned in their minds and freedom. This dictatorial and authoritarian regime (of the Chinese Communist Party) is afraid of any truth, and they rule by lies and violence before they can tolerate the people’s freedom to receive information.”
In recent years, the CCP authorities have been extensively censoring Internet speech.On January 8, 2021, China’s State Internet Information Office, in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security, publicly solicited comments on the Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services (Draft for Public Comments). Following 20 years since the Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services took effect, China’s Internet regulations are about to undergo a comprehensive reform. The new draft revision adds provisions, including requiring Internet information service providers to establish an information release review system, equip network and information security management personnel, establish a reporting system, and strengthen the penalty power and enforcement power of regulatory authorities, which essentially strengthens the supervision and control of ideology.
Notably, the draft also extends the Internet regulation and censorship system to overseas service providers operating in China. In addition, in dealing with false information, the new draft expands the definition of harmful information, in addition to the original incitement to subversion, secession and other information that endangers national security, new penalties for fabrication and dissemination of information related to disrupting the order of the financial market, involving dangerous situations, epidemics, natural disasters, Food safety, etc., further tightening the restrictions on speech.
Zhou Fenglock believes that the international community should not be inclined to accept China’s network censorship and the establishment of a firewall. He said China’s Internet firewall not only confines ideology, but also serves as a commercial trade barrier. Other countries should resist China’s firewalls and Internet censorship and prevent the Communist Party from legalizing them.
However, China is already moving full speed ahead on the road to legalizing its firewalls. Article 27 of the new version of the “Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services (Draft for Public Comments)” authorizes the state Internet information department and other relevant departments to take measures to eliminate, stop, and other dispositions to block the dissemination of news originating outside China, and the firewall is being raised higher and higher.
According to the annual Internet Freedom Report by Freedom House, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization, China’s Internet freedom ranked at the bottom of the list with a score of 10 on a 100-point scale, and was even lower than Cuba, Iran and Syria.
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