Chinese regulators instruct TikTok's operator ByteDance to ``expand monitoring of protest demonstration-related content including VPN''

Since November 2022, large-scale protest demonstrations have been held in China by citizens dissatisfied with the zero-corona policy. However, China's state media has not reported information on protest demonstrations, and strict censorship is being carried out on the Internet in China. In China, communication via VPN (virtual private network) was widely used to avoid censorship on the Internet, but the Chinese government has newly introduced a VPN to major technology companies such as ByteDance, which operates TikTok. It has also been reported that it has been notified to spread surveillance to communications via.

China Clamps Down on Internet as It Seeks to Stamp Out Covid Protests - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-clamps-down-on-internet-as-it-seeks-to-stamp-out-covid-protests-11669905228

In China, an Internet censorship system called ' Golden Shield ' is in operation, and access to sites deemed harmful by the Chinese government is strictly restricted. Inaccessible sites include SNS such as Twitter and Facebook, and anti-government opinions will be deleted as soon as they are discovered by regulatory authorities.

In China, VPNs were widely used to access services such as Twitter and Facebook. However, in 2017, VPN became illegal in China, and in 2022, skiers who posted the opinion that 'anyone should be able to use VPN' were criticized for not understanding the situation in China. is occurring.

An American-born gold medalist who can use Instagram even though he is a representative of China posts that ``anyone can use VPN'' and is criticized-GIGAZINE

As mentioned above, it is difficult to use a VPN in China, but according to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government does not always monitor VPN connections, and still uses VPNs to access services outside the country. It is said that there are many users using . In addition, according to a survey by the data analysis company Sensor Tower, the download ranking of the Twitter app in China rose from 104th before the protests to 8th in November 2022 when the protests began. has become

Under such circumstances, China has sent instructions to several technology companies, including ByteDance, to ``add personnel to the censorship team, monitor VPNs, and pay particular attention to content related to protests.'' rice field.

Even in 2022, VPN-related products were being sold on Taobao, a major Chinese e-commerce site. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, when searching for information about VPNs on Taobao on December 1, 2022, a message such as 'No related items found' was displayed.

As Chinese companies, ByteDance and TikTok cannot go against the instructions of the authorities, but overseas they are focusing on resolving concerns about interference by the Chinese government. At a conference held by The New York Times on December 1, 2022, TikTok's CEO Zhou Zhou was asked, ``Isn't the Chinese government accessing the data of American TikTok users?'' We are in the process of migrating user data management servers, and will only allow access to the migrated servers to employees residing in the United States .' ``American data and Chinese data are managed by completely different algorithms,'' he said, emphasizing the safety of user data.