Reuters
Chinese authorities have banned entry to “Clubhouse”, an application that allows users to discuss sensitive topics with people abroad, including Taiwan, and interact with the country’s Muslim minority.
According to the Associated Press, this application is added to the thousands of websites and social media applications that the ruling Communist Party denies access to, in an attempt to control what the public in China sees and reads.
The service for Chinese users of this app stopped at around 7 pm on Monday in Beijing, according to GreatFire.org, a non-profit group in the United States that monitors the Internet in China and tries to help users circumvent it.
The Clubhouse app has given temporary Chinese users an uncensored forum to talk about politically sensitive issues. And unlike many other social media apps, it uses word of mouth, which allowed users in China to speak directly to people in Taiwan, the island claimed by the Communist Party as part of the Chinese territory, and to others abroad.
Recent topics of discussion included the Xinjiang region in northwest China, where the Communist Party has arrested more than a million Muslims of ethnic origin, according to the agency.
The service requires inviting users to join and giving their names and phone numbers.
The ruling party in China also prohibits access to Facebook and Twitter and other global social media services, and the thousands of websites run by news organizations, human rights, Tibet, democracy and other activists.
Source: Associated Press
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