China's Tuber app bypasses Great Firewall, then disappears

An app launched by China's Tuber by a cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360 disappeared after it gave the country’s internet users access to Facebook and Google which are banned in the Communist country.

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The App also allowed Chinese citizens to legally access Youtube and Instagram photos without resorting to the illegal virtual private network(VPN). However, it disappeared from Huawei's app store.

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China controls all access to the Internet in the country with users allowed to access only government sanctioned sites. Tuber was reportedly dowloaded five million times on Huawei’s App store.

The new app had allowed millions of Chinese to bypass the state-controlled Great Firewall. After it was launched, it required personal information from users namely names and identity card numbers even as some users complained it too slow.

Qihoo 360 is owned by China's tech tycoon Zhou Hongyi who had delisted his company from the New York stock exchange four years ago and aligned itself to China's policies. The US had earlier this year sanctioned Zhou’s two companies over national security concerns.

The US government had earlier clamped down on China's popular video-sharing app TikTok over security concerns. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said following the Trump administration's line had said that TikTok must become a "US-based company controlled by US investors".

However, China's Xi Jinping regime accused Trump of "bullying" and "abusing national power" in its bid to take over TikTok.