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TECHNOLOGY Wednesday 19 July 2017

China users report WhatsApp disruption amid censorship fears

By GERRY SHIH of preparing for a sensi- he had no information on
Associated Press tive party congress while the issue when asked by
BEIJING (AP) — Users of Chinese censors this week reporters on Tuesday.
WhatsApp in China and se- revved up a sprawling ef- Facebook did not immedi-
curity researchers have re- fort to scrub all mention ately respond to a request
ported widespread service of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel for comment. WhatsApp
disruptions amid fears that Peace Prize laureate who is one of the world’s most
the popular messaging ser- died Thursday in govern- widely used messaging ser-
vice may be at least par- ment custody. vices, with over 1.2 billion
tially blocked by authorities A report this week by the users.
in the world’s most popu- University of Toronto’s Citi- Signal, another encrypt-
lous country. zen Lab detailed how Chi- ed messaging service,
WhatsApp users in China nese censors were able to appeared to also have
reported Tuesday on other intercept, patchy service with signifi-
social media platforms that in real time, images com- cant delays.
the app was partly inac- memorating Liu in private China has long blocked
cessible unless virtual pri- one-on-one chats on We- In this March 10, 2017, file photo, WhatsApp appears on a smart- Twitter,
vate network software was Chat, a feat that hinted at phone in New York. Facebook and YouTube,
used to circumvent Chi- the government’s image Associated Press with officials arguing that
na’s censorship apparatus, recognition capabilities. untouched. He said voice Chat, which is produced by foreign social media ser-
known colloquially as The It appeared that pictures messages also appeared Shenzhen-based internet vices operating beyond
Great Firewall. were also the focus of the to be blocked. giant Tencent and legally their control pose a threat
WhatsApp, which is owned move to censor WhatsApp. But there was no evidence bound to cooperate with to national security. But au-
by Facebook and offers Late Tuesday, users in Chi- to suggest that Chinese Chinese security agencies. thorities in China, as with
end-to-end encryption, na could send texts over authorities were decrypt- Because WhatsApp con- other governments, are
has a relatively small but WhatsApp without the use ing WhatsApp messages, tent is encrypted, “they paying increasing atten-
loyal following among us- of VPNs, but not images. Kobeissi added. have moved to brute cen- tion to encrypted messag-
ers seeking a greater de- Nadim Kobeissi, a cryptog- A Chinese censorship re- sor all non-text content,” ing apps.
gree of privacy from gov- raphy researcher based searcher known by his Smith said in an email. “It After Beijing waged its larg-
ernment snooping than in Paris who has been in- pseudonym Charlie Smith would not be surprising est-ever crackdown on hu-
afforded by popular do- vestigating the WhatsApp said authorities appeared to find that everything on man rights lawyers and ac-
mestic app WeChat, which disruption, said he be- to be blocking non-text WhatsApp gets blocked, tivists in 2015, the People’s
is ubiquitous but closely lieved The Great Firewall WhatsApp messages forcing users in China to use Daily newspaper, the ruling
monitored and filtered. was only blocking access wholesale precisely be- unencrypted, monitored Communist Party’s official
Questions over WhatsApp’s to WhatsApp servers that cause they have not been and censored services like mouthpiece, singled out
status come at a politically route media between us- able to selectively block WeChat.” Telegram as the platform
fraught time in China. The ers, while leaving servers content on the platform Chinese foreign ministry where lawyers the coordi-
government is in the midst that handle text messages like they have with We- spokesman Lu Kang said nated their activities. q

Samsung to recover rare metals,

components in Galaxy Note 7s

AP Technology Writer to catching fire. crisis was one of the biggest
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) It didn’t say how it would black eyes in Samsung’s
— Samsung Electronics use the retrieved metals recent history, costing the
plans to recover gold and The phones’ display mod- company more than $5 bil-
other metals and compo- ules, memory chips, cam- lion. Airlines banned pas-
nents from recalled Gal- era models and other com- sengers from carrying Note
axy Note 7 smartphones to ponents will be separated 7s on flights due to safety
reduce waste. The South from the Note 7 for sale or concerns and millions of
Korean company said recycling, Samsung said smartphones were shipped
Tuesday that it expects to in a statement. In another back to Samsung. In this Oct. 11, 2016, file photo, Samsung Electronics Galaxy
retrieve 157 tons of gold, effort to reduce waste, The phone recall fiasco Note 7 smartphones are displayed at its shop in Seoul, South
silver, cobalt, copper and Samsung has begun sell- prompted Greenpeace to Korea. Associated Press
other metals from millions ing 400,000 units of Galaxy urge the South Korean tech
of smartphones that were Note FE phones in South giant to sell longer lasting ists fault smartphones for ing other appliances they
recalled and discontinued Korea made from unused electronics products that increasing the amount of may actually decrease the
last year after their batter- parts of recalled Note 7 are easier to repair and tech waste, though some amount of high-tech-relat-
ies were found to be prone smartphones. The Note 7 upgrade. Environmental- experts note that by replac- ed rubbish overall. q