Chinese are gathering at “Clubhouse”, a voice-based social network that has not been censored by the government – GIGAZINE

by Craig Nagy

Voice-based invite-only SNS “Club houseIt has been popular with many people, including celebrities, since the service launched in Japan in late January 2021. Reuters reported that the Clubhouse is bringing the Chinese together with strict government censorship of Internet applications and services to have open conversations about political issues.

Chinese users flock to US chat app Clubhouse, evading censors | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN2A705H

Clubhouse is a voice-based SNS that allows you to enter a “room” set up by you or other users to have a voice conversation or hear someone’s comments. You can choose to open the room to all users or only to your friends, so that you can talk to people in a closed environment.

Clubhouse, which gained popularity during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, announced in January 2021 that it had successfully raised a second round of funding. Going forward, he said he would expand infrastructure, such as servers, to expand services around the world, and provide a way for users to monetize at Clubhouse.

Voice-based invitation-only SNS “Clubhouse” raised funds for the second time, Android version app – GIGAZINE to be launched

Many Western social media apps such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where strict censorship is being applied to remove content that could undermine the Communist Party. However, Clubhouse has not been banned so far, and Chinese users are beginning to flock to Clubhouse as a platform to avoid censorship, Reuters said.

At the time of writing this article, Clubhouse is only available for iOS apps and is not available on the Chinese app store. However, Chinese users have bypassed the restrictions by changing the App Store country or region and are getting the Clubhouse app. Invitation from existing users is required to participate in Clubhouse, and “Clubhouse invitation right” is said to trade for 50 to 400 yuan (about 820 to 6,500 yen) on the online shopping site in China.

According to Reuters, the Chinese room of the Clubhouse talks about politically sensitive topics such as internment in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the independence of Taiwan and the national security of Hong Kong, with thousands of users. There seems to be a room where In addition, there are rooms where Internet users in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong openly talk about political tensions, making the Clubhouse a valuable place for Chinese users to discuss political issues.

Anonymous overseas bulletin boards where conspiracy theorists and far-right groups are active8kun (8chan)There are certainly social media available in China, including, but it’s unclear why Clubhouse hasn’t been blocked so far. “I don’t know how long this environment will last, but I definitely remember this moment in the history of the Internet,” said a Chinese Weibo user of Twitter about open interaction at Clubhouse …