Signal — the Encrypted Messaging App and Jack Ma’s Browser Blocked in China

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Jack Ma CEO of Alibaba Group
Jack Ma CEO of Alibaba Group

Signal, an encrypted-messaging app that rose to fame in January, blocked in China. The Chinese government also banned an internet browser made by the country’s richest man Jack Ma. 

In the last few days, users of Signal in China said on other social media platforms that they couldn’t use signal as of Monday evening. Users reported that they couldn’t even send messages on the app, said a report by the Washington Post.

Nevertheless, some other users are still accessing the encrypted-messaging app via Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide locations. According to a CNBC report, the app is still available on Apple’s China App Store for download. 

“Signal has been walled,” wrote users on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo, says a report by the Post. 

Signal provides users with end-to-end encryption, meaning that no third parties including the government and authorities to spy on messages. Furthermore, the free messaging app doesn’t share any data on its users to third parties or platforms.  

The app rose to fame in January following WhatsApp’s update to its terms and conditions. Users panicked that WhatsApp will no longer be end-to-end encrypted, consequently leading to a massive shift to the Signal app as an alternative.