Clubhouse banned in China
Fast-rising audio chat app Clubhouse doesn't seem to be available in China anymore.
Clubhouse users in mainland China started complaining of disruptions on Monday, Reuters reported.
The disruptions aren't due to technical issues; the service has been banned by the Chinese authorities, TechCrunch said. An outright ban certainly isn't out of the ordinary, as numerous U.S.-based social media services, including Twitter and Facebook, are already banned in China.
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The ban comes just as Clubhouse started gaining popularity in China. According to The Guardian, a hashtag on Weibo that referred to Clubhouse as "the Renaissance of China" was viewed at least 50,000 times before it, too, was banned.
Seemingly coming out of nowhere last year, Clubhouse gained immense popularity outside of China as well, attracting celebrities such as Oprah, Ashton Kutcher, and Elon Musk.
The app offers audio chats on a variety of topics, with one important trait being that the chats aren't saved and the app itself doesn't offer the possibility to record them.
Clubhouse's popularity is even more impressive knowing that the app is only available on the iPhone, and can only be accessed with an invite. According to Reuters, invites for the platform were at one point selling for up to $70 in China.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
