China Disrupts WhatsApp Service in Online Clampdown<br />By PAUL MOZURJULY 18, 2017<br />In recent weeks, the government has appeared to increase its grip, an online crackdown fed by a perfect storm of politically sensitive news, important events<br />and a new cybersecurity law that went into effect last month.<br />Instead of getting a new product into China, the internet giant now faces the reality<br />that its last app standing is under threat of being pushed outside the walls of Chinese censorship.<br />The new cybersecurity rules, broad and vague, have left Western companies uncertain of how they will be applied<br />and what impact they could have on a difficult operating environment.<br />In recent months, a number of virtual private networks, tools<br />that allow users in China to access the broader internet around the world, were removed from app stores or shut down.
