Chinese Netizens are bidding to access the Clubhouse, an online public meeting app that is going viral around the world. Accessing the application is free: it is only necessary that a user who is already inside invites you. But Chinese citizens are offering up to 65 euros for one of these invitations.
As it has progressed the Financial TimesChinese netizens want to access this platform where they believe they can discuss sensitive issues such as the situation of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang or the latest news from Hong Kong, without being subject to censorship by the Chinese government.
The invitations are sold out immediately on the electronic commerce platforms of the Asian country, where they appear at an average price of 500 yuan, about $ 77 or about 65 euros according to the currency exchange. Clubhouse has become popular as celebrities like Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have hosted these voice chat rooms with complete strangers.
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The app was born in Silicon Valley in the middle of last year and has just arrived in China. Taobao, one of the main e-commerce portals in the country, owned by Alibaba, has more than 200 sellers offering invitations to the platform. Some have explained to Financial Times they have had thousands of clients.
Fang Kecheng, Professor of Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has emphasized that many people “want to know what happened in Xinjiang or Hong Kong.” In the first province, the imprisonment of thousands of Uyghurs has been denounced, which the US has labeled “genocide”. In Hong Kong, protests against the Chinese government have been going on for months.
David Li is one of the entrepreneurs who have sold invitations to Clubhouse. Specifically, it has offered more than 50, and has highlighted, also in statements to the British media, that it is “the latest fashion in apps”. “It is different from any Chinese platform on the market.”
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Clubhouse, which is also landing and becoming popular in Spain, is only available by invitation and at the moment on iOS devices “IPhone.” In China, at the moment, it is not subject to government regulation, which platforms such as WeChat, Tencent’s alternative to WhatsApp, do adhere to.
WeChat, to comply with Chinese law, blocks and censors “illegal” content. Facebook or Twitter, for example, are directly blocked throughout the Chinese national territory.
The last Sunday, according to him Financial Times, a public gathering at the Clubhouse hosted more than 700 people who identified themselves as Chinese or Taiwanese citizens. The debate focused on comparing the political system of both states: many citizens showed their sympathy for the self-government of the islands and his concern for the Chinese one-party regime.
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“It is true that the Xi Jinping government is good at doing its things,” acknowledged one of the participants. “But I am concerned about the lack of checks and balances that will prevent me from doing the wrong thing in the future.”
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