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| Image source: goldenfrog |
China's Supreme Court has sentenced Deng Jiewei from Dongguan inwards Guangdong province, roughly Hong Kong, to ix months inwards prison theatre for selling virtual mortal network (VPN) software through his ain modest independent website.
VPN encrypts users' Internet traffic too routes it through a distant connection too thence that spider web surfers tin enshroud their identities too place information piece accessing websites that are commonly restricted or censored past times whatsoever country.
Chinese citizens commonly brand run of VPNs to bypass the Great Firewall of China, also known equally the Golden Shield project, which employs a diversity of tricks to censor the Internet inwards the country.
The projection already blocked access to some 171 out of the world's 1,000 top websites, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Dropbox, too The Pirate Bay inwards the country.
But to tighten travelling steal over the Internet too online users, the Chinese regime announced a 14-month-long crackdown on VPNs inwards the province at the inaugural off of this year, requiring VPN service providers to obtain prior regime approval.
The motion made nigh VPN vendors inwards the province of 730 1000000 Internet users illegal, too has straightaway resulted inwards the arrest of Deng, who was convicted of "providing software too tools for invading too illegally controlling the figurer information system."
According to the courtroom documents posted on the China's Supreme People's Court website, Deng has been selling ii VPN services on his website since Oct 2015, too was inaugural off detained inwards August terminal year.
Deng along amongst his partner Jiang Moufeng made nearly 14,000 Chinese yuan (just US$2,138) selling the VPN software, which allowed users to "visit unusual websites that could non go accessed past times a mainland IP address."
Deng has been constitute guilty of intrusions and "illegal command of figurer information arrangement procedures," and has been sentenced to ix months imprisonment too fined 5,000 Chinese yuan.
Deng was genuinely sentenced inwards March this year, but the online courtroom documents were circulated on a Chinese weblog tracking social media trends inwards China, called What's on Weibo, solely on Sunday.
We reported inwards July that Apple also removed some of the pop VPN apps, including ExpressVPN too Star VPN, from its official Chinese app shop inwards club to comply amongst the regime crackdown that volition rest inwards house until March 31, 2018.
