Improper online info to be regulated by law

China's Internet authorities said Tuesday that "improper information" online will be regulated in accordance with Chinese law amid worries about the unavailability of overseas VPN (virtual private network) services.

In response to recent reports about some VPNs becoming inaccessible in the Chinese mainland and worries about Internet freedom, Wen Ku, director of the communication development department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a press conference that "Internet development in China should be in line with the law and some improper information should be regulated." He added that "New measures will be adopted when a new situation emerges on the Internet."

Astrill, an overseas VPN company on Wednesday announced that some of its users in China have been unable to use its services since an upgrade of the Great Firewall, a part of China's Internet infrastructure that blocks some websites. VPN protocols used on iOS devices, including IPSec, L2TP/IPSec and PPTP, are not accessible in China in almost real-time, according to Astrill.

VPN Tech Runo, another VPN provider, also announced on January 5 that many of its IP addresses and users in some areas whose devices use the L2TP protocol have not been accessible in China since December 31.

"The Great Firewall is blocking the VPN on the protocol level. It means that the firewall does not need to identify each VPN provider and block its IP addresses. Rather, it can spot VPN traffic during transit and block it," one of the founders of an overseas website which monitors the Internet in China told the Global Times Thursday via e-mail.

"Authorities apparently cannot ignore those services as they affect our cyberspace sovereignty. For instance, a shortcut has to be blocked since it could be used for some ulterior purposes although it might affect others who use it in a legitimate way," said Qin An, a cyber security expert at the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, told the Global Times Thursday.

In recent years, more and more Chinese Net users have sought ways to surf the Internet outside the Great Firewall by using mirror websites or VPNs.

Some Astrill VPN users reached by the Global Times Thursday said that the firewall update has also led to an increase of the price of VPN services. One said Thursday that another VPN service he bought one week ago increased its price by 60 yuan ($9.6) Wednesday to 240 yuan per year.