In atheist China online gaming is practiced as a religion. The country is home to the world's largest gaming market. A market that fetches billions of dollars in revenue for the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/amid-coronavirus-outbreak-chinas-economy-contracts-job-losses-mount-294065">Chinese </a>economy.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/after-american-state-of-missouri-israeli-ngo-planning-class-action-lawsuit-against-china-294075">Also Read: After American state of Missouri, Israeli NGO planning class action lawsuit against China</a>

The Chinese state understands the economic power of the gaming industry and now it has come to understand how this industry could fuel dissent amid the ongoing pandemic because online games allow Chinese citizens to freely socialize with the outside world. It allows players to exchange ideas without any censors.

Not anymore, Beijing is extending its political censorship to online games. Chinese gamers will no longer be allowed to play games with foreigners - forget having a chat. Like most things in China, this feature is now forbidden. It all started with Beijing cracking the whip on a popular Nintendo game - animal crossing.

The social simulation game allowed users to freely interact with others even pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong. It included Joshua Wong who is now at the center of a storm.

Recently, Wong customized a scene in the game and made an inscription which read - "Free Hong Kong". Thousands of other users began leveraging the game to vent their discontent against the Communist regime in similar fashion.

Now, Beijing has decided to enforce a firewall that will blind Chinese players to any sort of dissent. Multiple laws are being drafted to expand the censorship if passed then online games will be subject to state surveillance.

Players will be able to log in only with their real names. Role-playing games will be banned and online gatherings will be under watch.

In atheist China online gaming is practiced as a religion. The country is home to the world's largest gaming market. A market that fetches billions of dollars in revenue for the Chinese economy.

In atheist China online gaming is practiced as a religion. The country is home to the world's largest gaming market. A market that fetches billions of dollars in revenue for the Chinese economy. Also Read: After American state of Missouri, Israeli NGO planning class action lawsuit against China The Chinese state understands the economic power of the gaming industry and now it has come to understand how this industry could fuel dissent amid the ongoing pandemic because online games allow Chinese citizens to freely socialize with the outside world. It allows players to exchange ideas without any censors. Not anymore, Beijing is extending its political censorship to online games. Chinese gamers will no longer be allowed to play games with foreigners - forget having a chat. Like most things in China, this feature is now forbidden. It all started with Beijing cracking the whip on a popular Nintendo game - animal crossing. The social simulation game allowed users to freely interact with others even pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong. It included Joshua Wong who is now at the center of a storm. Recently, Wong customized a scene in the game and made an inscription which read - "Free Hong Kong". Thousands of other users began leveraging the game to vent their discontent against the Communist regime in similar fashion. Now, Beijing has decided to enforce a firewall that will blind Chinese players to any sort of dissent. Multiple laws are being drafted to expand the censorship if passed then online games will be subject to state surveillance. Players will be able to log in only with their real names. Role-playing games will be banned and online gatherings will be under watch.

Joshua Wong effect: China set to disallow local gamers to play with foreigners

China's education ministry on Wednesday announced it was banning foreign teaching materials like textbooks and classic novels in schools and said it would "tighten" its review system on&nbsp;teaching material.

The ministry said it would "insist on the guiding principles of Marxism and reflect the Chinese style.”

“All primary and secondary school teaching material&nbsp;must reflect the will of the party and the country,” it said, adding, so that "students bear the great responsibility of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

China's latest move comes amid reports of the Communist Party preparing to rewrite the holy books of Islam and Christianity amid the crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang.&nbsp;

Last year, the Communist nation had released a code of ethics for Chinese journalists.

The code said journalists needed to safeguard the country's political and cultural security and social stability while urging the press to report on people-centered approach at work.

The code also insisted journalists report truly and accurately on events and make full use of technology.

China's education ministry on Wednesday announced it was banning foreign teaching materials like textbooks and classic novels in schools and said it would "tighten" its review system on teaching material.

China's education ministry on Wednesday announced it was banning foreign teaching materials like textbooks and classic novels in schools and said it would "tighten" its review system on teaching material. The ministry said it would "insist on the guiding principles of Marxism and reflect the Chinese style.” “All primary and secondary school teaching material must reflect the will of the party and the country,” it said, adding, so that "students bear the great responsibility of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” China's latest move comes amid reports of the Communist Party preparing to rewrite the holy books of Islam and Christianity amid the crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang. Last year, the Communist nation had released a code of ethics for Chinese journalists. The code said journalists needed to safeguard the country's political and cultural security and social stability while urging the press to report on people-centered approach at work. The code also insisted journalists report truly and accurately on events and make full use of technology.

Now, China bans foreign teaching material in schools

Google's CEO faces a grilling from US lawmakers on how the web search giant handled an alarming data breach and whether it may bend to Chinese government censorship demands.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/google-walkout-effect-ceo-sundar-pichai-announces-revamped-sexual-harassment-policies-176406">CEO Sundar Pichai</a>'s appearance Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee comes after he angered members of a Senate panel in September by declining their invitation to testify about foreign governments' manipulation of online services to sway US elections.&nbsp;

Pichai's no-show at that hearing was marked by an empty chair for Google alongside the <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/australian-watchdog-calls-for-more-scrutiny-of-google-facebook-182777">Facebook</a> and Twitter executives.

Pichai went to Washington later in September to mend fences, meeting with some two dozen Republicans and indicating he also planned to meet with Democrats.&nbsp;

He took part last week in a White House meeting with other tech industry executives that focused mainly on getting government and businesses working more closely on accelerating emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

In October, Google announced it was shutting down its long-shunned Plus social network following its disclosure of a flaw discovered in March that could have exposed some personal information of as many as 500,000 people.&nbsp;

The company deliberately avoided disclosing the privacy lapse at the time, in part to avoid drawing regulators' scrutiny and damaging its reputation, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous individuals and documents. Lawmakers want Google to explain its failure to reveal the breach.

On Monday, the company said it was accelerating its plans to shutter Plus after discovering a privacy flaw that inadvertently exposed the names, email addresses, ages and other personal information of 52.5 million users last month. The service will now go dark in April instead of August, as previously announced.

"We work hard to ensure the integrity of our products, and we've put a number of checks and balances in place to ensure they continue to live up to our standards," Pichai said in his opening statement prepared for Tuesday's hearing.

Lawmakers are also concerned by recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored results to comply with the demands of that country's Communist government.

President Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging the results of its dominant search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute "fake news." That's another area of potential questions to Pichai by committee members.

The company has denied any political bias, and there's no evidence of an anti-conservative tilt. Pichai said in his written testimony that "I lead this company without political bias and work to ensure that our products continue to operate that way. To do otherwise would go against our core principles and our business interests."&nbsp;

Google has good reason to communicate with lawmakers and policymakers and to seek to weigh in on thorny issues. Trump and some lawmakers have raised the possibility of asking regulators to investigate whether Google&nbsp;which handles nearly two of every three online searches in the US&nbsp;has abused its clout as a major gateway to the internet to stifle competition.

And momentum is building in Congress for legislation to put stricter limits and privacy protections around the big tech companies' collection of data. With the Democrats having captured control of the House in the midterm elections and poised to take over as the majority running the Judiciary Committee next month, tougher legislation could be in the offing.

Pichai, a former engineer, took the helm of Google in 2015 in a major restructuring that made Google a division of conglomerate Alphabet Inc.&nbsp;whose businesses include Waymo, a self-driving technology development company. Bolstering the dominance of its search engine, Google's Android operating system runs most of the world's smartphones and its other services including Gmail, YouTube, online ads and the Chrome web browser&nbsp;are widely used.

Google's CEO faces a grilling from US lawmakers on how the web search giant handled an alarming data breach and whether it may bend to Chinese government censorship demands.

Google's CEO faces a grilling from US lawmakers on how the web search giant handled an alarming data breach and whether it may bend to Chinese government censorship demands. CEO Sundar Pichai's appearance Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee comes after he angered members of a Senate panel in September by declining their invitation to testify about foreign governments' manipulation of online services to sway US elections. Pichai's no-show at that hearing was marked by an empty chair for Google alongside the Facebook and Twitter executives. Pichai went to Washington later in September to mend fences, meeting with some two dozen Republicans and indicating he also planned to meet with Democrats. He took part last week in a White House meeting with other tech industry executives that focused mainly on getting government and businesses working more closely on accelerating emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. In October, Google announced it was shutting down its long-shunned Plus social network following its disclosure of a flaw discovered in March that could have exposed some personal information of as many as 500,000 people. The company deliberately avoided disclosing the privacy lapse at the time, in part to avoid drawing regulators' scrutiny and damaging its reputation, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous individuals and documents. Lawmakers want Google to explain its failure to reveal the breach. On Monday, the company said it was accelerating its plans to shutter Plus after discovering a privacy flaw that inadvertently exposed the names, email addresses, ages and other personal information of 52.5 million users last month. The service will now go dark in April instead of August, as previously announced. "We work hard to ensure the integrity of our products, and we've put a number of checks and balances in place to ensure they continue to live up to our standards," Pichai said in his opening statement prepared for Tuesday's hearing. Lawmakers are also concerned by recent reports that Google is poised to re-enter China with a search engine generating censored results to comply with the demands of that country's Communist government. President Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging the results of its dominant search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute "fake news." That's another area of potential questions to Pichai by committee members. The company has denied any political bias, and there's no evidence of an anti-conservative tilt. Pichai said in his written testimony that "I lead this company without political bias and work to ensure that our products continue to operate that way. To do otherwise would go against our core principles and our business interests." Google has good reason to communicate with lawmakers and policymakers and to seek to weigh in on thorny issues. Trump and some lawmakers have raised the possibility of asking regulators to investigate whether Google which handles nearly two of every three online searches in the US has abused its clout as a major gateway to the internet to stifle competition. And momentum is building in Congress for legislation to put stricter limits and privacy protections around the big tech companies' collection of data. With the Democrats having captured control of the House in the midterm elections and poised to take over as the majority running the Judiciary Committee next month, tougher legislation could be in the offing. Pichai, a former engineer, took the helm of Google in 2015 in a major restructuring that made Google a division of conglomerate Alphabet Inc. whose businesses include Waymo, a self-driving technology development company. Bolstering the dominance of its search engine, Google's Android operating system runs most of the world's smartphones and its other services including Gmail, YouTube, online ads and the Chrome web browser are widely used.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai faces House grilling on breach, China censorship

Apple has removed virtual private network (VPN) services from its app store in China amid criticism from various&nbsp;VPN service provider.

However, users from China with billing address in other countries will have access over the VPN apps. They can approach these apps from other branches of the App Store.&nbsp;

The move has attracted criticism from VPN service provider, which has accused the company of bowing to pressure from Beijing cyber regulators.&nbsp;

VPN prevents China&#39;s &#39;Great Firefall&#39;, thus uplifting the restrictions imposed on its access to overseas sites. The service provider allows users to hide their IP addresses and access blocked or censored online material.

According to reports, Apple has blocked over 60 VPN apps have been banned.

China had initiated laws in January to&nbsp;ban all VPNs that did not have state approval. It wanted to establish VPNs under the state network infrastructure.&nbsp;Beijing has always maintained strict control over the internet. The country has already restricted several China based providers and is now eying the overseas services to further tighten control over the information super highway.&nbsp;

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the&nbsp;removal of apps that do not comply with the law from its China App Store, including services based outside the country.&nbsp;

The apps are available in the tech giant&#39;s store outside China.

This is the first time when Apple has complied with requests to remove overseas providers from its store.&nbsp;

Apple manufactures most of its hardware in China and significantly the country has become a major consumer of its products.&nbsp;Earlier this month Apple also established its first data centre in China, in collaboration with a local company Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry.

ExpressVPN claimed recently that Apple had notified it that its software would be removed from the China App Store as it includes illegal content.&nbsp;

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
VPNs removed from China App Store. Dismayed Apple sided w/ censorship, but we&#39;re committed to keeping you connected: <a href="https://t.co/wvVk6IIsD3">https://t.co/wvVk6IIsD3</a>
&mdash; ExpressVPN (@expressvpn) <a href="https://twitter.com/expressvpn/status/891213454996000768">July 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&quot;We&#39;re disappointed in this development, as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China&#39;s censorship efforts,&quot; ExpressVPN said in a statement.

Other major providers, including VyprVPN and StarVPN, also stated the same response from Apple.&nbsp;

&quot;We view access to Internet in China as a human rights issue and I would expect Apple to value human rights over profit,&quot; Sunday Yokubaitis, President of Golden Frog, which oversees VyprVPN told Reuters.&nbsp;

He also added that Golden Frog is planning to file an appeal to Apple over the ban.

&quot;We are extremely disappointed that Apple has bowed to pressure,&quot; said Yokubaitis. &quot;(It&#39;s been a) disappointing morning but we will fight on.&quot;

According to the VPN providers, though&nbsp;the apps are not available on the app store, it can be installed manually using VPN support built into Apple&#39;s operating system.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

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Apple has removed applications used to evade China&#39;s net censorship. What does this mean for the already stringent web censorship in the country? WION explores (WION)
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&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The move has attracted criticism from VPN service provider, which has accused the company of bowing to pressure from Beijing cyber regulators

Apple has removed virtual private network (VPN) services from its app store in China amid criticism from various VPN service provider. However, users from China with billing address in other countries will have access over the VPN apps. They can approach these apps from other branches of the App Store. The move has attracted criticism from VPN service provider, which has accused the company of bowing to pressure from Beijing cyber regulators. VPN prevents China's 'Great Firefall', thus uplifting the restrictions imposed on its access to overseas sites. The service provider allows users to hide their IP addresses and access blocked or censored online material. According to reports, Apple has blocked over 60 VPN apps have been banned. China had initiated laws in January to ban all VPNs that did not have state approval. It wanted to establish VPNs under the state network infrastructure. Beijing has always maintained strict control over the internet. The country has already restricted several China based providers and is now eying the overseas services to further tighten control over the information super highway. An Apple spokesperson confirmed the removal of apps that do not comply with the law from its China App Store, including services based outside the country. The apps are available in the tech giant's store outside China. This is the first time when Apple has complied with requests to remove overseas providers from its store. Apple manufactures most of its hardware in China and significantly the country has become a major consumer of its products. Earlier this month Apple also established its first data centre in China, in collaboration with a local company Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry. ExpressVPN claimed recently that Apple had notified it that its software would be removed from the China App Store as it includes illegal content. VPNs removed from China App Store. Dismayed Apple sided w/ censorship, but we're committed to keeping you connected: https://t.co/wvVk6IIsD3 — ExpressVPN (@expressvpn) July 29, 2017 × "We're disappointed in this development, as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China's censorship efforts," ExpressVPN said in a statement. Other major providers, including VyprVPN and StarVPN, also stated the same response from Apple. "We view access to Internet in China as a human rights issue and I would expect Apple to value human rights over profit," Sunday Yokubaitis, President of Golden Frog, which oversees VyprVPN told Reuters. He also added that Golden Frog is planning to file an appeal to Apple over the ban. "We are extremely disappointed that Apple has bowed to pressure," said Yokubaitis. "(It's been a) disappointing morning but we will fight on." According to the VPN providers, though the apps are not available on the app store, it can be installed manually using VPN support built into Apple's operating system. Apple has removed applications used to evade China's net censorship. What does this mean for the already stringent web censorship in the country? WION explores (WION) ×

Apple prevents Chinese users from accessing VPN from its app store