Signal, the popular encrypted messaging app, stopped in China on Tuesday, according to several reports. The app is still available in the Apple App Store in China, according to Reuters, but it is not clear how long this could take.
The Chinese government has not made any announcement about blocking or banning Signal in China, but Signal’s website was not available in the country starting months. Google Play STore is not available in China, but Android users may have previously downloaded the app directly from the Signal website.
Signal did not immediately respond to questions sent early Tuesday.
Signal verification codes for Signal are not working at this time in China, according to users discussing outages Twitter, which would make new registrations for this service impossible for anyone using a phone number in mainland China. some users were still able to needlecease Signal if they started a VPN.
The signal is reported still working in Hong Kong, a region that was largely autonomous from the Chinese government, before a crackdown in recent months has largely destroyed the “one country, two systems” approach to government.
China has totaled more than 500,000 signal downloads on iOS, according to TechCrunch, although it is a relatively humble number in a country of 1.4 billion people. But Signal’s rise has probably been worrying for Chinese authorities trying to monitor and control everything on the Internet in mainland China. End-to-end encryption of the signal would have made monitoring extremely difficult communications between two people on the application.
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The signal was developed by Open Whisper Systems and he has a lot of luggage since he has it binds to US intelligence community. But that original story he does it alone somewhat surprising The signal was allowed inside China in the first place. WeChat, which is not end-to-end encrypted, is by far the most popular messaging app in China.