Beijing warns top sites in VPN crackdown

BEIJING: Chinese authorities have issued a warning to the country’s top e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba Holding Group Ltd’s Taobao.com, over the sale of illegal virtual private networks that allow users to skirt state censorship controls.

Five websites have been asked to carry out immediate “self-examination and correction” to remove vendors that sell illegal virtual private networks (VPNs), according to a notice posted by the Zhejiang provincial branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), China’s top cyber regulator. Some of them were ordered to halt new user registrations, suspend services and punish accountable staff.

“The (CAC) has ordered these five sites to immediately carry out a comprehensive clean-up of harmful information, close corresponding illegal accounts ... and submit a rectification report by a deadline,” the regulator said yesterday.

This is the latest in a series of measures taken by China to secure the internet and maintain strict control over content.

Surveillance is being further tightened ahead of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party later this year, when global attention will be on news from the world’s No.2 economy.

Recently, China said it was investigating its top social media sites, including WeChat and Weibo, for failing to comply with cyber laws. – Reuters