Protestors in Hong Kong show solidarity with people in mainland China and hold blank sheets of paper as a symbol of censorship. | Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
Police in China are checking people’s phones for the presence of foreign apps, including Instagram, Twitter, and the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. While both outlets indicate that police are stopping people at transportation hubs in Shanghai, William Yang, the East Asia correspondent at the German outlet DW News, says it’s happening in Beijing and Hangzhou as well.
According to reports from TechCrunch and The Washington Post, people in the country are accessing banned services like Twitter, Telegram, and Instagram through virtual private networks (VPNs) to communicate and organize protests against China’s zero-covid policies. Posts about the protests are heavily censored on…