The public expresses significant concern regarding privacy violations linked to the non-consensual sharing of private images, particularly highlighting the issue as a reflection of broader societal problems related to gender rights and digital privacy. There is a strong call for enhanced protection for individuals, especially women, against such exploitation, along with skepticism about the effectiveness of current regulations.

Government of China

Tech Companies

Women’s Rights Organizations

People take pics of others without permission all over the world.

Bussi_Slayer

I think it's very much set up/staged using potentially paid models/influencers

MTRCNUK

This is at TaiGuLi in Chengdu, there are signs up everywhere asking photographers to be respectful. That shopping area is renowned for “influencers” getting dressed up and being photographed. There are probably 30-50 photographers there every day just waiting for people to come past. There are also signs all through the venue asking for people to be respectful, so now the photographers are mainly just near the entrance. 

Same thing happens at Beijing Sanlitun in the main plaza. 

But yeah, anyone can photograph anyone in a public place without their consent.

Todd_H_1982

I talked to one girl who did something like this one time in Shenzhen .

They pay to do that, there’s like groups that pay girls for public style photos . Usually a mixture of “influencers”and ppl who want to be one .    They have the group chat and all go to whatever location. 

The red armband guys are the ones who paid .




Buuuut yeah at the same time,  there’s a ton of non consensual photography here, and they’re way more obvious about it than anywhere else I’ve lived.  But the non consensual ones would just be using smartphone cameras .

IIZANAGII

These are tiktok/douyin girls, don't think you can just go around taking pics of random good looking girls/guys without consent

springbrother

xcorv42

Since YouTube is not accessible from China, I guess the taker will not be sued or injunctioned any time soon.

Changeup2020

I bet exploitative images of women everywhere is being shared on telegram

WhisperBreezzze

Most women who live in China are Chinese.

Like this outrageous and criminal, but what an odd title.

2Lore2Law

Telegram is a banned app there so what else can they do?

PartrickCapitol

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AutoModerator

It’s always been illegal. But like any other Chinese laws, it is just if they choose to enforce it or not.

hayasecond

The chances of a tourist getting in trouble for having a vpn is so close to being zero it may as well be negative.

Every single resident foreigner here has one, as well as half the local population in a city like Shanghai. 

Additionally, if you just enable roaming you won't need one anyway.

doesnotlikecricket

It's always been illegal but nobody will do jack shit... just don't talk about it in front of English speaking authorities and you'll be fine

SaqqaraTheGuy

In China using a VPN as I type this comment

The chances of someone giving a fuck are like 0.0001%

B1SQ1T

All I can share is that I’ve been using VPN for 10+years before moving to another country. It was never a problem for me.

left4taco

Here's the thing about China: there are a multitude of laws, written in such a way so that no human can unambiguously not be breaking the law. Every man, woman, and child, citizen or foreigner, is always breaking a law. This is by design; if everyone is guilty of something, the party can haul you off whenever it pleases them. The law is not to serve the people, it's a club that the government can use to beat you over the head with.

That said, this also means you can ignore laws entirely if you conclude you're too important for them to harass you, or it's otherwise not worth the trouble of coming down on you. If someone with pull would raise a fuss over your arrest, you could probably commit some fairly big felonies and be fine. (The opposite is also true: if someone big dislikes you, you might be locked up even if you did your best to follow every law.) 

So what to do? Get a VPN, every foreigner has one, if word got out that you couldn't get foreign internet, it would cause issues for the CCP that they don't want to deal with. Don't piss off border agents, cops, or other people that might enjoy taking an uppity foreigner down a peg. Don't steal from Mom and Pop shops, they might know someone. (On the other hand, Carrefour is fair game, just pretend you were going to pay later, and don't admit to speaking Chinese, and hapless assistant manager will send you away rather than lose face for not speaking enough English to interrogate.) Basically, just ignore most stupid laws, and play dumb If caught. Worst that can happen is you're told to stop.

PS: I would never steal from Carrefour. But that's because I consider it morally wrong, not because I fear getting caught.

PPS: Except for drug laws. They take that shit seriously, don't fuck around with that.

Fra_Mauro

Hi! Just got back from China. It’s illegal to use a VPN. This law is not enforced. China has recently been cracking down on VPNs so it’s hard to find one that works

retrogra

My recommendation is to use a telco in your home country and utilise their international roaming service when in China. Roaming traffic is tunnelled to your home telco. 

AFAIK, the Chinese telcos (usually China Mobile) do not censor the traffic at all.

Two further points are that you can buy a roaming eSIM from many telcos (thus no foreign SIM card that is easily removable by aggressive Chinese officials), and secondly you can easily hotspot your mobile to provide connectivity on your laptop.

2gun_cohen

It has always been illegal, and the charge is called "illegal use of the internet channel." Typically, it results in a few days of detention and a fine. The more serious offense is providing VPN services. I just got out of prison, sentenced to three and a half years, with the charge of "providing tools for intrusion and illegal control of computer information systems." However, they usually don't arrest foreigners.

joeaki1983

I’ve literally closed my VPN in front of police to show them information on my phone that loads too slowly with a VPN (like a Health code app during Covid for example) and they didn’t bat an eye.

Stop reading scaremongering media and you’ll be alright

PassionDifferent1773

Those that I knew used VPN, never lived to tell me if it worked, last message I got from them was "it works!".

Anyway, I travel to China every year (except covid years), I noticed their VPN crackdown gets more sophisticated over the years.

The only free VPN that worked for me was PPTP connection back to my home internet but I had to take care there's no other devices connected on my home network as once connected I noticed a sudden flood of attempts to my IP address.

Nowadays I will just get a roaming package.

hermansu

You have to wonder how all those government officials post on YouTube, FB and X...

AcidicNature

It is technically illegal but every foreigner uses one without worrying about getting caught and punished. You'll be fine.

shamalouconstantine

If I were to go for a short visit, I would aim to already have the VPN software installed and ready to go. If it doesn't work, I would not replace it.

Aumpa

Most websites aren’t blocked on data roaming to begin with

EffffSola

acevictor777

I think it has always been illegal but no one really gives a shit. The chance of you getting a punishment for using a vpn is almost 0.

Primary_Gold8255

As long as you are a foreigner, this kind of law or regulation means nothing. They are for CN citizens ONLY.

Jeremy_Choi

It's illegal and always has been, but will only be enforced if they want to go after you for some other reason.

AttackHelicopterKin9

If you are a foreigner or a tourist then nobody gives a shit. If you are a local then you are fucked. And I mean royally fucked. If you sell a VPN to someone in China they you can expect to “disappear” for at least 5 years.

YouSA101

Just be careful china is cracking down on foreign "spys" anf are actively trying to catch foreigner's doing something they can relate to as spying. They've already locked up a few foreigners. I would usw the VPN just dont tell ANYONE.

[deleted]

the punishment is whatever they decide.  Just don't break the law there.

canuckaudio

You are safe if you are a foreigner (non Chinese citizen)

JackReedTheSyndie

You hold a FOREIGN PASSPORT, then just fuck that law.

Informal-Nebula-4155

All VPN use or cross border private traffic is illegal unless it is a registered service for business use offered by a carrier such as China Telecom that has the authority to supply such a service.   Unless it’s a VPN provided by your Chinese employer it’s most likely illegal.

TurbulentReward

Even my Chinese friends have vpns. They’re fine as long as they didn’t launch political criticisms.

zook54

VPNs in China are treated like drugs in many Western countries. Using a VPN is fairly common in China and the cops aren't going to after every VPN user. They typically will only go after those that sell/distribute VPNs or those that did malicious things towards China whilst using it (like driving a car under drug influence and getting into an accident). If you use a VPN to organise protests in China, they can legally lock you up for using a VPN in your court case.

UsernameNotTakenX

Most commercial VPN doesnt work in China now. China most likely blocked their nodes alr. All i can use it my cmopany VPN or some not so well known VPN provider

yzf02100304

If ur a foreigner, then don’t worry. You are the first class citizens on our soil, and native Chinese are just three or fourth class, so laws for them are not eligible for you

WeirdBalloonLights

VPN is useless now, use shadowsocks or v2ray

chili_oil

Officially, it's illegal.


But as long as you don't do anything that Xi doesn't like, the government doesn't care.


Just follow all orders no matter how much you hate them, you should be fine.

warfaceisthebest

Never heard people around me get punished because of use a VPN, but there are few on the news, most of them get a warning  (like told them not to use it). It's totally depends on what you do，there are many famous Chinese influencer posting video on youtube, some of them even treat as positive on CCTV(李子柒), but abuse Xi on Twitter will be another story.

MirrorCurrent2501

The punishment is none, Chinese government has no right and power to punish other countries' citizens

ReazeMislaid

if you are chinese, the possibility is less than 0.1%
for you it's just 0
but i would suggest you use other proxy service instead of vpn, because it's very easy to be distinguished by gfw, and than your vpn cannot connect to internet outside china

HopefulPickle6813

I got sentenced to 6 years hard labor for using astrill vpn.   Luckily they didn’t find expressvpn or it would have been 12

Afraid_Bill6089

As a foreigner, **never** bring your personal/actual device to China, always use a burner. If you must, even for a layover, do **NOT** power up your device, it will get siphoned. Comments about foreigners not being prosecuted for VPNs are nonsense, you will pay huge fines, or worse.

Sauce: Worked in IT as an exec for Huawei.

Rose_Beef

Not illegal,in fact,there's no official regulation that VPN is not allowed.But authorities are truely craking down those who make VPNs,rather than those who use VPN.

Ethan24s

FMonta

Does anyone know for foreigner will China custom ever search my phone? Do I need to unlock my phone for their inspection?

megabiome

I used vpn for 2months and nobody gave a shit. The only problem was that the vpn didn't work properly. I used two and both were constantly cutting the connection.

petit__pain

It is illegal, but they do not enforce it 99.999% of the time. I know many of my mainland Chinese friends regularly use VPN services to cheat on CS:GO.

lndig0__

kanada_kid2

there is a law the you need a special license to operate a VPN in china. It is more illegal to be the one providing the VPN without this license than the one using it. I think it is just a monetary fine if caught using a VPN without a license but serious prison time if caught providing VPN. They basically never enforce the law on users they just go after the providers and try to block the overseas vpns

lordnikkon

Beneficial-Tank3573

Everything is illegal. Get used to it.  But most people still use it anyways

januza

Can i use whatsapp or google map with vpn?

nuruddeen710

Get a good mobile data package and use your phone. My friend used Tmobile and he doesn't need a vpn.

Wonderful_Card9889

I went to china for june-july and used express vpn everywhere. Never failed once. Windscribe and proton doesn't work.

banana_inhaler

Literally half the people in Shanghai use a VPN to browse YouTube and Instagram. I honestly haven't met anyone not use one, and I'm not talking about foreigners here.

if you have your own country carrier like T-mobile, you will be no limitation.

chengguanfengmao

ratsta

If we play this right, we can be on the front page again.

ting_bu_dong

Polypinoon

That's what happens when you borrow money from the Bank of Uncle Ganbay

Am i the only one who thinks this whole thread doesn't belong on r/china, or even anywhere on reddit?

Yes, these girls were stupid, but not only is it pictures of women who didn't intend to have the whole world see them, it's also pictures with their full names, birth date and address on. 

Go to r/AsiansGoneWild, there's plenty of women who is sharing nudes with the internet willingly.

chialtism

be careful. there are pics of 17 year old girls in that file. that's a big no-no in the states and will get you an a heap of trouble.

So, what's the motivation to pay the money back now? I predict a large number of defaults incoming.

DeathByChainsaw

Anybody can do the calculation on the annual rate of 30% interest per week? Math-challenged, here

kulio_forever

TheDark1

Confirmed magnet link does in fact work, I will also scan it after it downloads 8.74gb

Hexxorcist

Ok, so I downloaded it.  Most of the girls are average, but still hot.

There are some fuglys for sure.

But there are videos too!  One girl,with a belly tat, masterbates and squirts! It's hot!

BakerBaker123

marshmallowcatcat

AONomad

A Telegram chatroom scandal in China reveals illicit sharing of private footage, raising outcry over privacy and gender rights.

Non-consensual Sharing of Private Images in China

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want