Chinese regulators recently blocked Facebook‘s (NASDAQ: FB) WhatsApp amid a sweeping crackdown on social media and mobile messaging platforms. The Chinese government started censoring WhatsApp’s photo, video, and voice note sharing capabilities back in July, but it has now expanded that effort to block all text messages.
Speaking to The Verge, Symbolic Software applied cryptographer Nadim Kobeissi stated that the Chinese government likely upgraded its firewall to detect and block the NoiseSocket protocol that WhatsApp uses to send texts.