China Tells Telcos to Block Personal VPNs By February Next Year, Cutting Off More Citizens From Global Web

China is raising the barriers to the rest of the online world as Beijing tells carriers to cut access to personal Virtual Private Networks by Feb. 1, 2018. VPNs have already been declared illegal earlier this year, as the government works to plug the remaining walls in the Great Firewall.

Sources have revealed that the Chinese government has ordered telecommunication carriers in the country to block personal access to VPNs, as reported by Bloomberg. The deadline for this order is set on Feb. 1 next year, according to insiders.

VPNs are used by individuals and companies as a way to maintain secure access to computers and online services across the Internet. Its secure features have also been used to hide traffic from censorship regulations, and they are instrumental to skirting around the network blocks put in place by China.

While the ban will have an effect on free speech in China, legitimate businesses also have to face another hurdle to working in the country, according to Engadget. The regulation may possibly allow corporations to justify having VPN access in China, but this new step by President Xi Jinping's administration could put smaller companies at a disadvantage.

In the past, the Chinese government has limited itself to issuing bans against the use of VPNs, with the latest policy added earlier in January. With this new development, however, Beijing is now using telcos including China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom to cut off unregistered access to VPNs.

President Xi Jinping has previously talked about his goal of "cyber sovereignty" for the country, aiming for a self-sufficient national internet free from undesirable foreign influence. With these new measures, the ruling party could be hoping to further consolidate its control over media platforms, including all online content.

Meanwhile, Chinese citizens looking to get a glimpse of the online world past China's web filters will soon have more limited options, including open proxies like "Shadowsocks." It remains to be seen if Beijing will clamp down on these technologies as well.