AWS Bows Down To Censors In China

Guess if you want access to a country, you have to follow their rules. And Amazon knows this, as it has asked AWS customers in China not to use software that bypasses the country’s internet gates.

Beijing Sinnet Technology, which has partnered up with AWS in China, recently sent out emails asking users to delete tools that allowed to bypass the vast system of internet filters the Chinese government had set up.

More specifically, VPNs, or virtual private networks, or illegal VPNs, rather, that are used to circumvent internet censorship in the country.

These instructions come hot on the heels of Apple removing some 60 such services from its Chinese app store over the weekend. All this amid a government crackdown on tools and services that are being used to dodge restrictions on access to overseas websites.

The government had passed laws that banned all VPNs that were not approved by regulators in January, and has already shut down dozens of virtual private networks based in China.

For Amazon Web Services, these developments point to an increasing pressure that foreign companies face when complying with the Chinese rules and regulations, including the country’s new cybersecurity law that went into effect in June.

AWS signed a deal with Beijing Sinnet Technology last year to better serve local enterprises, and uses datacenters in Beijing, Shanghai and Hebei Province to provide Chinese enterprises with cloud services.

It plans to build a bigger datacenter in Beijing, as it moves to expand operations in China.