You could go to jail for USING a VPN to access those sites. It also allows the government to "regulate and shut down" any social media site with more than 1 million users. Meaning that all big social media networks would have to do whatever the government wants, since the govenment has a constant threat of banning their network at their fingertips.
I'm pretty sure is way more harsh than anything China does to their citizens if they go beyond the great fire wall