Understanding the "Airport" Censorship Circumvention Ecosystem in China
In China, a burgeoning underground market sells citizens subscription-based censorship circumvention proxies known as ''airports''. We present the first systematic study of this ecosystem, combining user surveys, social media analysis, and active network measurements. We find that airports are by far the most popular off-the-shelf censorship circumvention tool in China, used by over half of our 1,667~survey respondents, who cite their ease of use, performance, and access to geo-restricted servic
Record details
Published: 16 June 2026
Source: arXiv
Category: Research
Topics: unclassified
Retrieved: 14 July 2026
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ethics.ai (16 June 2026), “Understanding the "Airport" Censorship Circumvention Ecosystem in China,” evidence record 861, https://ethics.ai/record/861 (originally published by arXiv).
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