China steps up internet censorship, disrupts VPN providers who circumvent firewalls

China is tightening its grip on the internet by requiring internet users to register their real names for some internet services and disrupting the services of businesses that give people the tools to circumvent the "Great Firewall".

According to China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the new registration rule will apply to people who use services such as blogs, instant messaging services and online discussion forums.

It is partially aimed at weeding out users with misleading online handles such as "Putin" and "People's Daily".

The onus will be on internet companies to enforce these new regulations which begin on March 1, meaning they will incur extra costs in order to comply with the order.

Chinese internet companies that run Weibo, the country's equivalent of Twitter which has 60 million active daily users, were ordered to implement real name registrations in 2012.

Jason Ng, who analyses online censorship at The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, said that caused some online users to self-censor because of the added risk of getting into trouble.

The latest announcement follows a disruption of three providers of virtual private networks (VPN) that are popular in China.

Internet users who install VPNs on their mobile phones or computers can access content that cannot be seen or used in China such as Facebook, Google, and some foreign news websites.

Having a VPN also means users can read posts that have been erased from Weibo.

This is because VPNs create a path that enables people to jump over the virtual Chinese firewall.

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China steps up internet censorship, disrupts VPN providers who circumvent firewalls