A Chinese software seller has become the first individual convicted under China’s new crackdown on the use of virtual private networks (VPN).

On Monday, the South China Morning Post reported that Deng Jiewei, a 26-year-old resident of Guangdong province, had been sentenced to nine months in prison for selling VPN software via a pair of websites he operated with his partner.

Deng’s websites had offered two different VPN software products since October 2015, and the authorities reportedly arrested him in August 2016. While the information was only made public this weekend, Deng was apparently convicted in March of “providing software and tools for invading and illegally controlling the computer information system.”

Many Chinese citizens utilize VPN technology to get around the country’s ‘great firewall’ that blocks citizens’ access to sites frowned upon by the government. The technology is the main conduit through which Chinese gamblers visit internationally licensed online gambling sites offering sports betting and other gaming products that aren’t permitted on the Chinese mainland.