Multiple people across China reporting Clubhouse now blocked. It was nice while it lasted. A brief glimpse at the world as it would be if the CCP allowed Chinese to speak online unfettered. What a world it would be. A diversity of perspectives, a chance for understanding. Alas...

The block actually happened faster than I thought. In the past it has generally taken months for new networks to go down, tho few were as viral and controversial as Clubhouse. Still it was a very self selected audience with limited reach.

What happens next? Likely a legion of domestic clones appear. It will be interesting to see how they stack up. Clubhouse actually reminds me of the voice-only social networks that spread and failed in China in 2012. The fact that it’s based on Agora is testament to the China DNA.

Censors and their contractors have been hard at work on AI powered tech to quickly screen/censor sensitive words in audio and video. You can see it at work in China’s live stream services. Local versions will likely be featuring similar tech. So no more interesting convos.

It’s extremely unlikely a startup like Clubhouse could or would bother to go thru the process of getting into China. To do so would require hiving off Chinese users, censoring them, and reporting them to the internet police when necessary.

So Chinese are stuck on Chinese platforms cut off from the world. And also cut off from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Which feeds widening gaps in understanding just as China’s relationships with countries across the world are becoming more fraught. And of course, that’s the point.