Advertisement
Chinese browser that helped users bypass Great Firewall disappears after racking up millions of downloads
- Chinese Android app Tuber briefly let people access blocked foreign services while censoring politically sensitive results
- Tuber was promptly removed after five million downloads, following the fate of Kuniao, another browser that claimed to let users legally hop the Great Firewall
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Chinese app Tuber briefly granted Chinese internet users access to blocked foreign sites such as YouTube and Facebook, leading some to celebrate that Beijing was moving to allow a more open internet.
But it promptly became unavailable on Saturday after going viral on Friday.
Tuber is an Android app made by a little-known company that is 70 per cent owned by a subsidiary of China’s biggest cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360. Sporting a logo similar to that of YouTube, Tuber’s main page offered a feed of YouTube videos, and on another tab it let users go to Western websites including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitch, which are blocked by China’s Great Firewall.
But there were some catches: before using the app, users needed to sign up with their phone numbers, which in China are linked to their national ID numbers – meaning real identities. And the app’s terms of service said that if users “actively watch or share” content deemed illegal, it would share their data with “relevant authorities”.
The app also censored content on the foreign sites. Tests done by media outlets showed that searching “Xi Jinping” and “Tiananmen” generated no results.
The app has been available for download since late September, according to a Bloomberg report, but its popularity soared only last Friday after a WeChat article introducing the app went viral.
Advertisement