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Great Firewall

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Apple changes China app store guidelines as regulatory scrutiny mounts. Photo: SCMP/Jonathan Wong

Apple changes China app store guidelines as regulatory scrutiny mounts

Apple has updated its China app store rules amid tighter government policy requiring licensing of all apps for local users, as US tech giant moves to keep on right side of regulations.

4 Oct 2023 - 2:36PM

A piece of Web3 tech helps banned books through the Great Firewall’s cracks

16 Apr 2022 - 9:23PMvideocam

US-China tech war

US lawmakers urge Biden to fight China over censorship hitting Google, Apple

28 Jan 2022 - 2:28AM

Digital currencies

Chinese cryptocurrency investors not pulling out despite exchange exodus

Chinese investors in bitcoin and other digital tokens say they are continuing to trade their virtual currencies overseas as Binance and Huobi end support for purchases in yuan.

28 Dec 2021 - 2:45PMvideocam

A cryptocurrency advertisement displayed on a building in Hong Kong on November 18. Photo: AP

Chinese gamers worry about Steam ban after access issues on Christmas

Users complained on social media about intermittent connectivity issues with Steam amid heightened concerns that it will finally be blocked by China’s Great Firewall.

27 Dec 2021 - 8:00PMvideocam

Opinion | Young and liberal, China’s post-90s digital natives are a force for change

Internationally exposed and more liberal than older generations, they are changing established social structures, creating new social spaces, and using social media to bargain with the party-state.

27 Sep 2021 - 1:44PMvideocam

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US-China relations

Blinken stands firm on Trump-era measures against Chinese media

‘The real concern here is Beijing’s use of propaganda and disinformation overseas, through state-owned media enterprises and platforms, with the purpose, in part, of interfering or undermining democracy,’ said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

29 Apr 2021 - 5:30AMvideocam

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Annapolis, Maryland on April 19. Photo: AFP

Crime in Hong Kong

Letters | Real names for Hong Kong SIM cards: beware Big Brother

With the enactment of Hong Kong’s national security law, the real-name registration policy could become part of a clampdown on the internet

23 Mar 2021 - 9:54AMvideocam

Hong Kongers scramble for VPNs as Beijing plans national security law

But VPN isn’t a fool-proof privacy shield for internet users

26 May 2020 - 5:42PM

US work collaboration app Notion is blocked in China

The international version of Zoom was also barred by the Great Firewall last year

25 May 2020 - 5:18PM

US work collaboration app Notion is blocked in China

Adult live-streaming site exposes millions of user records

Half a million CAM4.com records were traced back to China, where porn is illegal, but the company says it has secured its servers

6 May 2020 - 5:01PM

Safety Detectives says several hundred entries that were left unprotected revealed full names, credit card types and payment amount. (Picture: Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Why the coronavirus slowed China’s plan to take on Elon Musk’s internet satellites

Two state-owned companies are racing to catch up with SpaceX’s Starlink to provide internet from space

16 Apr 2020 - 12:58AM

Censored coronavirus news shows up again as emoji, Morse code and ancient Chinese

A censored interview with a whistleblower doctor in Wuhan prompts massive pushback on WeChat

12 Mar 2020 - 1:49AM

People are searching for porn while stuck at home during the coronavirus

Porn-related keyword searches surge on Baidu, China’s largest search engine

10 Mar 2020 - 7:30PM

People are searching for porn while stuck at home during the coronavirus

WeChat reportedly censors messages about coronavirus even when they’re true

Citizen Lab researchers say Tencent’s popular messaging app filters hundreds of keywords about the epidemic in China

6 Mar 2020 - 2:23PM

A nurse works in an ICU ward for coronavirus patients in Wuhan. (Picture: Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua)

Plague Inc. vanishes from Steam and Apple's App Store in China

Disappearance comes days after the game was pulled from China’s iOS App Store during the ongoing coronavirus epidemic

2 Mar 2020 - 3:48PM

Weibo verifies profiles of desperate bloggers at the center of the coronavirus outbreak

China’s Twitter-like platform speeds up account authentication for doctors and Wuhan residents

15 Feb 2020 - 1:21PM

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Apple removed 805 apps in China from 2018 to 2019

Apple is removing hundreds of apps in China at the government’s request, but we don’t know why or what they are

16 Feb 2020 - 4:04PM

Apple removed 805 apps in China from 2018 to 2019

Why are Samsung smartphones talking to servers in China?

Galaxy 10+ user finds that Samsung’s Device Care tool is powered by Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360

16 Feb 2020 - 6:58PM

Man arrested for selling VPN to hop the Great Firewall

China has toughened up on censorship circumvention tools since 2017

16 Feb 2020 - 7:29PM

China technology

From flip phones to smartphones: Growing up in China’s decade of tech transformation

Living in China through most of the 2010s, I look back at how far we’ve come

15 Feb 2020 - 12:46PM

Customers waiting outside a Beijing Apple Store for iPhone 4S sales to start in 2012. (Picture: AP)

Baidu vs Google: 2019’s searches inside and outside China’s Great Firewall

From Notre Dame and Avengers: Endgame to 996 and The Wandering Earth, the most-searched keywords on Google and Baidu this year look very different

17 Dec 2019 - 12:03AM

Baidu vs Google: 2019’s searches inside and outside China’s Great Firewall

Google both pursued and abandoned China under Larry Page and Sergey Brin

A decade after leaving China, Google is losing its "moral compass" Sergey Brin, but CEO Sundar Pichai takes a more practical approach to China

4 Dec 2019 - 9:19PM

Chinese hackers break into Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Safari in competition

Tianfu Cup brings together China’s best hackers, who excelled in overseas hacking competitions like Pwn2Own

19 Nov 2019 - 10:00AM

Chinese netizens think Mark Zuckerberg betrayed China

The Facebook CEO has been widely admired in China, but his more recent negative comments about the country aren’t going over well

19 Nov 2019 - 3:47AM

Mark Zuckerberg attends the Economic Summit of China Development Forum 2016 in Beijing. (Picture: Xinhua)

A new Chinese browser claims to let people legally visit foreign websites

The browser is marketed as the first legal tool in China to let people visit sites like Facebook, Google and YouTube… but it still censors searches

15 Nov 2019 - 10:00AM

A new Chinese browser claims to let people legally visit foreign websites

Shutterstock censors sensitive search terms for China

Terms such as “President Xi” or “umbrella movement” are banned

7 Nov 2019 - 5:25PM

The story of China’s Great Firewall, the world’s most sophisticated censorship system

The Great Firewall of China refers to the country’s online censorship system that blocks a range of foreign websites and slows down internet traffic as it crosses the border. It’s why Chinese users can’t access Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

3 Jul 2020 - 7:26PM

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