Hong Kong (CNN) A Chinese software developer has received a suspended prison sentence for selling software that allowed internet users to dodge the Chinese government's intensifying efforts to control their online activities.

According to a court report published Tuesday, the man, surnamed Dai, was given a three-year suspended sentence and fined around $1,400 this week after being found guilty of operating a website offering virtual private network (VPN) services to hundreds of Chinese users between April 2016 and October 2017.

This is the first time such a case has been brought in Shanghai, the court said. Such prosecutions are rare nationwide, but have stepped up in the wake of a crackdown on VPN use launched last year. In September 2017, another developer in southern Guangdong province was sentenced to nine months in prison for the same crime.

VPN services remain one of the most effective means of getting around the Great Firewall, China's vast online censorship apparatus.

In the West, VPNs are mainly used for connecting to company intranets, strengthening online privacy and getting around regional blocks on services such as Netflix or the BBC iPlayer. But they can also skirt the Great Firewall because they mask internet traffic, which prevents the censorship apparatus from analyzing the traffic and blocking access to banned websites.

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