China blocks WhatsApp ahead of key government meeting

Messaging service WhatsApp has face major disruption in China in the latest incident of internet being blocked in the country.

Users of the Facebook-owned app reported widespread problems in its usage this week ahead of the 19th National Congress of the governing Communist Party, a highly secretive event where the party determines policy and configures its leadership.

It is the latest disruption experienced by WhatsApp users, having suffered similar outages on several occasions already this year.

Several popular Western internet platforms such as Google, Facebook and Instagram have been blocked in China in the past.

Whatsapp is not nearly as popular in China as it is in many other parts of the world, with the domestic alternative WeChat dominating - with more than 900m users.

The sensitive party congress arrives next week at a tense time following the death of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Beijing operates a massive collection of internet filters known as the Great Firewall, which censors content it believes to be harmful.

Facebook is currently banned in China following a series of riots in 2009, after a group of Xinjiang independence protesters used the social media site to communicate.