China has disrupted WhatsApp in a censorship drive ahead of the government’s Communist Party meeting next month.  It has only been accessible through virtual private networks (VPNs) at times – but even some of them are being blocked.  Other social media platforms, which people in the West use every day, are also banned in mainland China.  Instead they’re replaced by other ones which the government can monitor.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: September 28th, 2017

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41398423/social-media-and-censorship-in-china-how-is-it-different-to-the-west

Discussion

1) How might a company like WhatsApp deal with the Chinese government blocking their app and just replacing it with a Chinese-government monitored copy?

2) How does a VPN work and why is it useful to get around governmental monitoring like this?