19th September
? Looks like Whatsapp has been blocked in China since this morning ( Beijing time ). I haven’t been able to send or receive any message, video, photo or audio file. I currently use a China Mobile SIM. Many users reported problems with China Telecom and China Unicom networks as well.
The complete block follows the temporary block in sending/receiving photos and audio experienced on 19th July.
20th September
? It has been 1 day so far and Whatsapp is still down. Has it been censored forever or is just a temporary blackout?
Only few people I know ( foreigners and Chinese) are still able to use it on 3G and 4G networks at the moment. Oddly enough, it still works IF connected to certain wifi networks.
Let’s see what will happen in the next few hours otherwise China will turn into a island on the Internet.
21st September
✅ Whatsapp is back online !!! ?
Whatsapp is working fine. A whole day of black out is the worst disruption of service ever experienced by whatsapp in China. I still fear this can be just another warning before the complete block.
24th September
? DOWN AGAIN since midnight ( Beijing time ).
28th September
✅ ⚠️ whatsapp partially works in Guangzhou (photos / videos / audio messages don’t go through. Texts work normally).
29th September
?100% DOWN
Why do I worry so much about whatsapp?
Because Whatsapp is (was?) virtually the only western messaging/social app still functioning in China. Instagram and Facebook, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, have already been blocked for ages. For this reason I expect the same fate could hit Whatsapp soon or later. Telegram, Line, Viber, Twitter and other big socials are not accessible too.
