China’s cyberpolice cancelling mobile service for using virtual private networks

Gamblers in China who access international online gambling sites using virtual private networks (VPN) could find their telecom service cancelled and reconnecting would require a visit to the local police station.

This week, the New York Times reported that an unknown number of residents in China’s Xinjiang region had their mobile service cancelled after receiving text messages instructing them to “contact the cyberpolice affiliated with the police station in your vicinity.”

One user who visited the police told the Times that there were around 20 other people at the station for similar reasons. Police reportedly told affected users that their service had been cancelled for either (a) improper identification, (b) having downloaded international messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, or (c) using VPNs to bypass China’s infamous Great Firewall, which blocks access to sites the government doesn’t want its citizens to visit, including gambling sites.

Xinjiang is home to most of China’s restless Uighur minority, which practices the Islamic faith. Beijing blamed Uighurs for the ethnic riots that gripped the region in 2009, during which the authorities temporarily blocked local access to the internet.