China Just Shut Down One of Its Most Popular VPNs, Further Tightening Internet Controls

A girl is working on laptop in a Starbucks coffee shop. In
BEIJING, CHINA - 2017/06/02: A girl is working on laptop in a Starbucks coffee shop. In the second quarter of 2017, Starbucks opened its stores to five new cities in China. As of now, Starbucks China has 2628 stores in 127 cities. More Chinese consumers have been influenced to drink coffee or drink more coffee, so that the turnover in Starbucks has increased by 6%, and the same store revenue in China have increased by 7%. In the next years Starbucks will continue to open one new store at every 15 hours in China. (Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Zhang Peng LightRocket via Getty Images

China has ordered one of the most popular virtual private networks (VPNs) in the country to cease its operations amid a nationwide clamp down on internet freedoms, Bloomberg reports.

VPNs are used the world over to bypass state imposed internet access restrictions. They work by routing traffic to servers in locations where those restrictions don’t apply. In China, where a system known as the Great Firewall blocks access to news sites such as the New York Times, social media sites like Facebook, and a raft of other content, VPNs are used by private citizens, businesses, universities, and even state-run newspapers to get to off-limits information.

Read more: China’s Great Firewall is Harming Innovation, Scholars Say

But on Monday GreenVPN, one of China’s most popular, told customers it would freeze its service on July 1 after “receiving a notice from regulatory departments.” Some users reported being unable to use the VPN on their smartphones over the weekend, although it is unclear whether this was down to a glitch or the restrictions.

For more on government internet censorship, watch Fortune’s video:

The move is just the latest tightening of internet censorship in the run up to the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress, due to be held around October. Last month, China’s media oversight body ordered three major online companies — including the Twitter-like micro-blogging platform Weibo — to halt some of their multi-media streaming services.

In a January proclamation, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology listed restricting VPNs as one of several priorities for controlling online content in the country.