![]() Here's the thing about VPNs, though: Save for a few (very limited) services that have been formally approved by the government, they've technically been banned in China since 1997, when Chinese officials passed a law criminalizing the act of accessing the "foreign internet" without its specific permission. It's basically the best way to stay safe on the internet. A VPN will also encrypt your data, making it impossible for hackers and authorities alike to see what you're downloading. Through this process, the VPN masks your internet protocol (IP) address - the specific number that's assigned to your device on a local network - obscuring your exact location and allowing you to circumnavigate geoblocking and censorship. (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Reddit, YouTube, Netflix, and even Google are all no-gos.) At present, it's the largest system of censorship in the world.įortunately, there's a relatively easy workaround to the Great Firewall that can get you access to most sites that are blocked in China if you ever travel there: setting up a virtual private network.Ī VPN, as they're more commonly known, is a service that establishes a secure network over a public one by routing your connection through its own private server(s). And whereas the Great Wall ends where the Bohai Sea begins, the Great Firewall seemingly knows no bounds, affecting thousands of websites - everything from news outlets to social media platforms and apps and search engines. ![]() Much like the Great Wall, the Great Firewall was built for the purpose of keeping things out - only instead of deterring nomadic tribes' invasions, it targets foreign websites while slowing down cross-border internet traffic. You could make the argument that the Great Firewall is a world wonder, too - as in, it'll have you wondering how the heck you'd make it through a trip to China without a means to stay in touch with friends, pull up driving directions, or fight off jet lag with Netflix. It's a play on the name of the Great Wall of China - as in, the sprawling, millennia-old landmark that's one of the Seven Wonders of the World. EDT This story has been updated following news that a NordVPN server was breached (opens in a new tab).Ĭoined more than two decades ago, the term "Great Firewall of China" refers to the Chinese government's ongoing efforts to regulate and censor the internet within the borders of the country's mainland.
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