Springer Nature blocks access to articles in China

Academic publisher Springer Nature says it has blocked access to articles within China to comply with demands from the Chinese government.

The company said Wednesday about 1 percent of its content available online in global markets has been blocked in compliance with "local distribution laws."

The articles related to topics such as Taiwan, Tiananmen Square and Tibet considered sensitive by the ruling Communist Party. They can only be viewed with a virtual private network allowing users to skirt China's tight internet censorship regime, known as the Great Firewall.

The newspaper Financial Times reported that at least 1,000 articles were blocked.

In August, academic publisher Cambridge University Press restored more than 300 politically sensitive articles that had been removed from the publisher's website in China at the behest of authorities.

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