Feb. 10, 2021 - Epoch Times
02:35
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| U.S.-based audio app Clubhouse appeared to be blocked in China on February 8th after a short burst of popularity among Chinese netizens. | |
| An increasing number of Chinese users have flocked to the invitation-only app, as it does not record the conversations and therefore provides a degree of privacy. | |
| Dialogues about Hong Kong's freedoms, the suppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Taiwan's sovereignty, and other censored topics flourished on the app, even as Chinese users discussed when the authorities might come after the platform. | |
| On a popular Chinese online marketplace, prices for the app's invite codes soared to as much as 400 yuan. | |
| However, users' excitement over free expression was short-lived. | |
| On the evening of February 8th, thousands of Chinese Internet users began complaining about having trouble accessing the app. | |
| Some posted screenshots of their phone. | |
| With the error message, an SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made. | |
| I only had one day of happiness, one user lamented on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese language platform. | |
| Another complained that a chat group about Taiwan had disappeared. | |
| The Chinese hashtag ClubhouseBlocked was temporarily trending on Weibo before China's Internet police removed it from the search results. | |
| A netizen wrote on February 8th that he just registered a Clubhouse account in the morning, and by the end of the day it was already closed. | |
| While Chinese users were lamenting and complaining, they also said they were not surprised with the censorship, as it is a common practice in communist China. | |
| Global Times, a hawkish state-run publication, said in a February 8th editorial that the app is no free speech heaven. | |
| Citing an anonymous Clubhouse user who said discussions on the platform could become anti-China political propaganda in a short period of time. | |
| According to Hong Kong media HK01, some Clubhouse users inside China who registered with a domestic phone number found that they could no longer receive verification messages sent from the app. | |
| As the app requires account verification for new and returning users, this would block mainland users from accessing their accounts. | |
| The Hong Kong outlet also revealed that those netizens who are capable of bypassing China's internet firewall using special software could still use the Clubhouse app by taking this extra step. | |
| Clubhouse did not immediately respond to the Epoch Times' request for comment. |
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