The browser, carried on app stores run by Huawei Technologies Co among others, suggests Beijing is testing ways to let its 904 million Internet users into once-prohibited zones. — AFP
In a quiet experiment of just two weeks, China provided millions of people access to long-forbidden foreign websites like YouTube and Instagram. The trial appears to signal the Communist government is moving toward giving the country’s citizens greater access to the global Internet – while still attempting to control who sees what.
The Tuber browser-app, backed by government-linked 360 Security Technology Inc, appeared without fanfare late September and offered for the first time in years a way to view long-banned websites from Facebook Inc to Google and the New York Times, albeit sanitised versions. Chinese users rejoiced in a newfound ability to directly peruse long-blocked content from a mobile browser without an illegal virtual private network or VPN.
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