WhatsApp, Banned in China, Is Suddenly Working for Some Users

WhatsApp has begun working freely and consistently for some users in China despite a longstanding government ban on the messaging service, an unusual phenomenon for a country with some of the world’s strictest internet curbs.

Users of the Meta Platforms Inc. service in Beijing and Shanghai, who normally employ workarounds like a virtual private network to get on the service, have been sending and receiving messages without those tools. Other social media services such as Signal and Instagram remain barred, part of a broad blockade of foreign internet platforms that critics have dubbed the Great Firewall.

It’s unclear how ...