THERE WILL ALWAYS be those who, when faced with media and Internet censorship, seek ways to get around it and undermine government efforts to keep them in the dark. Now one company is openly trying to help these individuals, especially in China.

A company called Anchor Free is touting its software HotSpot Shield to the Chinese as a way of being able to access websites like YouTube and other sites blocked in China, using VPN routing.

The technology was originally developed as a plug-in for Windows or OS X, offering users free VPN services, to protect a user’s private information from hackers, who could try to take advantage of wireless connections. But the company soon discovered that its software was being put to an entirely different use.

When Pakistan blocked YouTube back in February, Anchor Free saw an upsurge in Pakistani users, who were downloading its software to circumvent the ban. Now the company has written and posted instructions in Chinese to help the Chinese people do the same thing.

The way the technology works is by creating a tunnel (or secure pipe) between any internet user worldwide. When the software is turned on, all traffic is encrypted and routed directly through Hotspot Shield, disguising the real location of the user on the end connection. Hotspot Shield is based in the US, which means that every user can therefore achieve a truly American Internet experience, without censorship (except maybe on subjects like abortion and the odd illegal war).

The company doesn’t usually discuss the possibilities for such “illegal” uses of its software, preferring, instead to focus on the legitimate aspects of the technology, but wherever there’s a will, there’s a way, and as long as the Chinese don’t shut it down any time soon, the people of China can subversively watch YouTube and read Amnesty to their hearts' content.