“Lantern” Helps China’s Web Users Dodge Censors Through Trusted Friends

Articles Creative Resistance Asia China Communications Censorship china free internet global voices internet internet censorship Lantern Language:   English Author:   Oiwan Lam

On China’s heavily censored web, many web users depend on Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and proxy servers to access blocked sites such as Facebook and YouTube. However, most of non-commercial proxy access points are blocked once the Chinese government identifies their existence. Joining the fight against censorship is a new circumvention software called Lantern, which was launched recently. Using peer-to-peer technology, the software allows users to invite friends into a “trust network” and enables members of the same network who have VPN or free Internet access to share their Internet connection with their friends, making it difficult for the government to discover individual access points as the network is dispersed and distributed.

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