In a recent case in Longnan City, Gansu Province, a man was sentenced to three years in prison with a three-year probation period for using VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access the overseas communication app Telegram, browsing and downloading personal information posted by others. This was deemed as a violation of personal information rights. The case has drawn attention to the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on bypassing internet restrictions and using foreign social platforms.
According to a verdict posted on the Chinese Judicial Document Network on June 26, the defendant, Zhang, accessed multiple Chinese channels on Telegram from abroad in October 2023, where he obtained personal data such as names, phone numbers, and ID numbers of others. He saved and shared some screenshots, leading to the charge of infringing on personal information rights.
The prosecution claimed that on November 23, 2023, Zhang used his personal computer to bypass internet restrictions and log in to Telegram, where he downloaded an electronic form containing personal information of Chinese citizens from public channels, amounting to 24,581 entries. On February 24, 2024, he downloaded a folder containing 100 sets of citizens’ ID card photos. Although the court’s findings were far fewer than the prosecution’s claims, Zhang was still sentenced to three years in prison with a three-year probation and fined 2000 RMB.
Mr. Zou, a senior network engineer in Hebei, mentioned in an interview that based on the verdict, Zhang only browsed and saved data from public channels without illegal intent. He suggested that law enforcement might have used Zhang’s browsing history cache on his device to assert unauthorized data acquisition, indicating that even just viewing public content could be considered illegal.
Mr. Liu, a practicing lawyer from Hunan, noted that Zhang’s case exemplifies how the Chinese authorities have extended their jurisdiction to include browsing and downloading activities on overseas platforms after bypassing the Great Firewall. This signifies a form of extraterritorial enforcement logic, where individuals can be held accountable for engaging with content deemed “inappropriate” regardless of their physical location.
Telegram, a popular encrypted messaging platform globally, has been widely used in mainland China for information dissemination, expression of dissent, and commercial purposes. However, the platform has long been blocked in China, requiring users to access it through VPNs and other circumvention tools.
In recent years, multiple similar cases have demonstrated the Chinese authorities’ strict stance against bypassing internet restrictions, with some individuals facing criminal penalties. In 2023, an engineer surnamed Ma in Chengde, Hebei, was fined 200 RMB and had his three-year income of 1.06 million RMB confiscated for remote work through a VPN for an overseas company, violating regulations on international networking, marking one of the highest administrative penalties related to circumventing restrictions in recent years.
The case of Zhang has sparked widespread concerns on social media platforms. Many netizens questioned whether being convicted solely for browsing public information on overseas platforms was overly stringent. Some are worried that activities on overseas social networks like Telegram and X platform (formerly Twitter) could become new focal points for crackdowns.
Legal experts have pointed out that this case reflects the continual expansion of judicial boundaries by the Chinese government under the guise of “data security” and “cyber sovereignty,” wherein ordinary users may unwittingly break the law. Human rights observers have also cautioned that the Chinese government’s definition of “information crimes” is increasingly ambiguous, conflating “viewing information” with “illegal usage,” giving law enforcement significant discretion in their enforcement.