Sudden government censorship can paradoxically increase information access for many citizens. This study examines social media data in China before and after Instagram's block, revealing a counterintuitive outcome: the ban motivated millions to adopt virtual private networks (VPNs). These tools provided ongoing access not just to Instagram but also enabled users to bypass longstanding restrictions on other platforms like Twitter and Facebook. While initially apolitical Wikipedia was accessed by these new VPN users, they quickly turned to blocked political content including Hong Kong protests and Chinese activist accounts. This demonstrates how censorship evasion technologies can expand information access beyond the immediately targeted platform.
