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| The encrypted messaging app Signal has stopped working in China |
Users in that country said: According to Reuters, the signal-encrypted SMS app appears to stop working in China if a VPN is not used.
The site for the encrypted messaging app could not be reached on Tuesday morning in China.
In recent years, Chinese networking authorities have become increasingly strict, which has led to the expansion of applications, media and social media sites banned in the country.
China blocks many foreign apps and services, including those from Facebook and Google, but Signal has not yet been blocked by what is known as a "long firewall".
As of Tuesday morning, the app will still be available on the Apple App Store in China, and the app and website appear to be operating normally in Hong Kong.
The app is not available on third-party Android stores in China, as Google services are largely blocked.
In some cases, this signal-encrypted messaging app will no longer work in China for no reason without a VPN.
After January 6, when WhatsApp updated its privacy policy while reserving the right to share user data (including location and phone number) with its parent company Facebook and other companies (such as Instagram), Signal saw an increase in downloads worldwide. And messenger.
According to data company Sensor Tower, Signal has been downloaded nearly 510,000 times through the Chinese operating system iOS, and the number of downloads via the App Store and Google Play has been downloaded 100 million times worldwide.
Signal is relatively new in China, but it's a rare way to send encrypted messages over external platforms without a VPN.
Tencent's WeChat app is the dominant texting app in China with payment and other services and has more than 1 billion users worldwide.
Signal claims to be encrypted all the time, which means that neither the company itself nor any outside party can view the contents of the message between the sender and the intended recipient, which also means that the authorities cannot monitor the message.