WhatsApp is facing a major issue today after it seems the popular messaging service has been blocked in large parts of China.
Users in the country have been hit with disruption to the app over the past few months which has seen them unable to send videos or photos.
But now WhatsApp has been totally blocked with no messages being allowed to be sent or received.
This block was spotted by Nadim Kobeissi, an applied cryptographer at Symbolic Software, a Paris-based research firm that also monitors digital censorship in China.
Speaking to The Verge, Kobeissi, said: “Essentially, it seems that what we initially monitored as censorship of WhatsApp’s photo, video and voice note sharing capabilities in July has now evolved to what appears to be consistent text messaging blocking and throttling across China.”
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WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and the block will be a huge blow to the social media firm.
Facebook has been banned in China for over seven years and WhatsApp its only channel in the country.
It’s thought this latest block maybe because the popular app offers end-to-end encryption.
This means users’ messages are always kept private and this may not be something that’s wanted with the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
This ban isn’t the first time the service has come under threat.
The hugely popular messenger has been targeted before by governments around the world – and was even rumoured to be blocked in the UK over security fears.
And the Facebook-owned service was even banned in Brazil for 48-hours.
A judge in Sao Paulo blocked smartphone owners from using the app for two days.
Brazilian mobile operators were told to block the hugely popular messaging app or face a hefty fine