The Tuber browser appeared to provide users the ability to legally visit overseas websites and browse foreign social media

One Chinese app briefly gave the country’s Internet users access to long-banned websites like Facebook Inc and Google.

The Tuber browser, backed by Chinese cybersecurity giant 360 Security Technology Inc, appeared to provide the nation’s 904 million online users the ability to legally visit overseas websites and browse foreign social media. Chinese users hailed their newfound ability to peruse content from YouTube videos to Instagram photos without an illegal virtual private network, or VPN.

Presumably the government heard about it and asked the stores to take it down, said Rich Bishop, chief executive officer of AppInChina, a publisher of international apps in the Chinese market.

Tuber’s browser required mobile number registration, giving developers the ability to track activity because all smartphone numbers in the country are linked to unique Chinese identification. The app also censored certain results from the previously banned sites.

Mainland Chinese commonly use VPNs to bypass the blockade of an array of foreign Internet services from Gmail to Twitter that’s stood for over a decade.

Before it was removed, Tuber was downloaded five million times from Huawei’s app store. It had been available for download since at least late September, according to online posts. There are numerous WeChat posts on it. Tuber was made available only for Android phones, according to its website.

Google had explored – but shelved under internal pressure – a project to create a filtered version of the app for users in the world’s largest smartphone arena.

Because of Google internal politics, they don’t want to make a China-compliant version so there’s a clear opportunity for someone to do that, said Bishop. But it’s easier said than done.

The parent company of Tuber’s developer is controlled by billionaire and tech mogul Zhou Hongyi, who delisted his security company Qihoo 360 from New York in 2016. The US Department of Commerce in May sanctioned two of Zhou’s companies among 24 entities it said posed national security concerns.

Wang Huiyao, president of the Beijing-based think tank Centre for China and Globalisation, said he remained confident Chinese leaders will eventually open up cyberspace – to an extent.

Huiyao said, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently launched an initiative which promotes cross-border data flows. It makes sense for Beijing to lift restrictions of some selected sites as a way to send out a positive signal to the international community.