The Chinese Government Has Blocked Whatsapp In The Country

The messaging service WhatsApp has been disrupted in China as the government steps up security ahead of a Communist Party meeting next month.

Users have faced problems with the app for more than a week with services dropping in and out.

At times, it has been completely blocked and only accessible via virtual private networks (VPNs) which circumvent China's internet firewall.

WhatsApp is Facebook's only product allowed to operate in mainland China.

Facebook's main social media service and its Instagram image sharing app are not available on the mainland.
Services disrupted

The BBC's China based correspondents said the WhatsApp messaging service started going offline more than a week ago.

A test of its services on Tuesday showed users in China could not send video messages or photographs to people outside China.

The disruption follows restrictions on WhatsApp video chats and photographs in July, which were later lifted.

The tightening of online censorship comes as China steps up security ahead of the Communist Party's national congress which is held every five years.

"The run-up period to a gathering is a normally a time of greater restrictions of all kinds to assure that the critical Party Congress is held under ideal social conditions and is not disrupted", Robert Lawrence Kuhn, long-time advisor to China's leaders and multinational corporations told the BBC.

However, he said it is not yet clear whether the restrictions will be relaxed as has happened after previous party congresses, adding that many analysts do not believe they will be.

Now, Nadim Kobeissi, an applied cryptographer at Symbolic Software, a watchdog focusing on online censorship in China, reports that the use of text messages has also been blocked, completely restricting the use of the app in the country.

Kobeissi believes the move may have been a result of Chinese authorities figuring out how to block the NoiseSocket protocol used for text communication by WhatsApp. Video and other content are shared via HTTPS/TLS, which may indicate that the earlier stay on text messages was not necessarily an act of leniency but, rather, a stay of execution due to technical limitations which have now been circumvented.

With the shuttering of WhatsApp in China, none of Facebook's major services are available in the country as the social media site and Instagram were already banned, marking a significant setback for its ambitions in China, opening the gateway for local competitors like WeChat to take over the space.