In a test conducted by the South China Morning Post in the afternoon, two users registered with mainland Chinese mobile numbers were unable to send videos or pictures to each other via WhatsApp. One of the users then tried, and failed, to send the video and photo files to an overseas number. China has reportedly blocked most services of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app, as online censorship increases ahead of a major political summit next month. Citing communications experts.
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- WhatsApp has been blocked in China as the Communist Party congress began on Wednesday
- Users also reported that they were not able to change profile pictures on Tencent-owned WeChat
- Some users also said that virtual private networks (VPNs) were also being disrupted
Facebook-owned WhatsApp is being censored in China as the Communist Party congress gets underway.
![How to open whatsapp at china 2017 How to open whatsapp at china 2017](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125804483/520199663.jpg)
WhatsApp has been blocked in China while other communication platforms like WeChat have been disrupted, as the country's Communist Party Congress began on Wednesday.
CNBC confirmed the blockage with two producers in Beijing, who said they could not send or receive messages on Facebook-owned WhatsApp. They were also unable to change their profile picture on WeChat, the messaging service owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, that boasts 963 million monthly users.
WeChat users received the following error message: 'Due to system maintenance reasons, from today on until the end of this month, changing profile pictures, changing alias, or changing personal description line is not allowed temporarily.'
CNBC has contacted both Tencent and WhatsApp for comment and further details. The U.K.'s Chinese embassy wasn't immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
WhatsApp's service has been on and off in China for the past week.
Users are also reporting that their virtual private network (VPN) apps are also being disrupted. VPNs are a way for people to circumvent China's rigorous censorship method, known as the 'Great Firewall'.
China has been cracking down on VPNs in the last few months. Apple pulled a number of VPNs from its App Store to comply with new regulations. And the government has ordered three major telecoms firms — China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom — to block access to VPNs.
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This would effectively tighten the government's grip over the internet in the world's second-largest economy.
One CNBC producer reported problems with a VPN called Astrill. There is no media contact address for Astrill listed on its website, but a representative on an online support chat, said it is not aware of any problems related to blocking from China.
The communications crackdown comes as China's Communist Party Congress, a once-every-five-years meeting, gets underway. It's expected to mark a further power consolidation for President Xi Jinping.
Communications platforms are often disrupted during major government events as a way to crack down on dissent online.
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The mobile-messaging application WhatsApp is displayed on an Apple iPhone
Chinese users had trouble using the popular WhatsApp instant messaging tool on Tuesday, with many fearing it is the latest victim of Beijing's internet clampdown.
Most of the affected users said they could not send or receive photos using the chat app, which is owned by Facebook, without a virtual private network.
VPNs are used to skirt Beijing's censorship system – which blocks websites with information that could be critical of the Communist Party such as YouTube, Twitter and foreign news sites – by rerouting internet traffic elsewhere.
Some users said they could not get WhatsApp to connect to the internet on Tuesday without a VPN.
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Beijing tries to pull the plug on VPNs in internet 'clean-up'
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What happened to Wanda tycoon's dream of a Chinese Hollywood?
In a test conducted by the South China Morning Post in the afternoon, two users registered with mainland Chinese mobile numbers were unable to send videos or pictures to each other via WhatsApp.
One of the users then tried, and failed, to send the video and photo files to an overseas number. When that person tried to send a photo to the mainland Chinese user from overseas, the message was received but the photo was only displayed as a loading thumbnail.
There was no problem sending and receiving text messages, and all services appeared normal when connected to a VPN.
Beijing's ongoing campaign to 'clean up' the internet has seen VPN providers shut down, celebrity gossip accounts closed and video content restricted.
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WhatsApp is one of the few foreign messaging apps available in mainland China. WhatsApp is not as popular as the local app WeChat, but it is favoured by some for its end-to-end encryption.
WeChat, however, which is owned by tech giant Tencent, has been found to be censoring messages deemed sensitive by Beijing without notifying its users, according to reports by Toronto-based Citizen Lab.
![How To Open Whatassp At China How To Open Whatassp At China](http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/whatsapp-iphone.jpg)
A member of a non-governmental labour welfare group in Shenzhen, who did not wish to be named, told the Post he had been unable to use WhatsApp since 8am, but other apps on his phone, including WeChat, were fine. He regularly uses WhatsApp to communicate for work as the messages are encrypted. 'WhatsApp is much safer than WeChat,' he said. 'Today I didn't talk to my colleagues at all. It's very confusing.'
WhatsApp and Facebook did not respond to requests for comment. Facebook's flagship social networking site and its photo-sharing service Instagram are both blocked in mainland China. Foreign chat apps blocked in recent years include Tokyo-based Line and Berlin-based Telegram.