By iStartAdmin on Thursday, 23 May 2019
Category: Technology

Here are all the major US tech companies blocked behind China's 'Great Firewall'

The tech Cold War between US and China is running hotter than ever since the Chinese tech giant Huawei was blacklisted from doing business in the US.

President Donald Trump's reason for blacklisting Huawei revolves around national security fears that the company's technology could be used for Chinese government-sponsored spying. The move, which also prevents Huawei from buying parts and components from American companies, could prove to have a hugely detrimental effect on Huawei's production of its popular smartphones and laptops.

Meanwhile, US tech companies have been largely banned from doing business in China for years. Communist-ruled China has long maintained strict regulations on which websites and social media platforms are accessible in the country — and which are blocked behind China's so-called "Great Firewall" of internet censorship.

That ban prevents companies like Facebook, Google, and Dropbox from reaching the country's over 800 million internet users. Still, it doesn't mean that China doesn't factor into the equation for those companies: Facebook, for example, saw an estimated $5 billion in ad revenue from Chinese-based companies in 2018, making the country the company's second largest ad market, according to AdAge.

That "firewall" isn't impenetrable, either, as some Chinese citizens have found ways to circumvent blocks on websites by using virtual private networks (VPNs).

Here are the all the major US tech companies that are blocked from use in China, according to censorship tracker Great Fire:

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Original author: Paige Leskin