Recently, Clubhouse, a social media software that combines voice chat, online party and online symposium, has become popular. In particular, the world’s richest man tesla CEO Musk and others joined, making the software fire from overseas to mainland China. With Facebook and Twitter being blocked on the mainland, the software became a major source of support for Chinese netizens. But then Clubhouse was revealed to be a software with Chinese capital behind it, and some bloggers and group owners also had doubts about the software’s secrecy and security. In addition, at a Time when Twitter and Facebook have been struck by overseas netizens, Clubhouse has suddenly been hotly speculated.
What is the software that Musk brought to light overnight?
According to foreign media reports, Clubhouse is a cell phone software launched by two innovative entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, in March last year. The software has been silent, and as of May 2020, it had only 1,500 users. It wasn’t until February 1 that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, went live on Clubhouse, and Musk’s celebrity effect brought Clubhouse to Life overnight.
Clubhouse is a social media software that combines voice chat, online parties, online seminars, and other interactive voice experiences, allowing users to listen to conversations, interviews, and discussions on a variety of topics from a variety of people.
One of the reasons for the popularity of this software is that it is very private and not open to the public; you must be invited to enter. After joining, users can choose topics of interest, such as current affairs, technology, business, health, Food, parenting, Education, etc. The software will recommend more chat rooms, individuals for reference, etc. based on the user’s topic of interest.
Clubhouse can accommodate up to 5,000 participants per chat room. The platform is expected to become a platform for online talk shows, Live concerts, and major lectures in the context of today’s rampant Epidemic and social restrictions imposed by many countries. The sense of status created by the invitation system, and the real-time celebrity chats make the App even more special.
When a Clubhouse chat room is closed, the transmitted voice conversation is also deleted, and this “listen-and-burn” feature is why privacy-conscious users are so interested.
As a result of the Musk effect, the demand for “invitation codes” necessary to sign up for a Clubhouse account increased dramatically, and there was even a marketplace for them on Reddit, eBay, and Craigslist. At the same time, Clubhouse also broke through the European and American cultural circles and made it to the top of Weibo and Taiwan‘s PTT Kanban topic. Although Clubhouse is not available for download on China’s Apple App Store, it is also in demand on Alibaba’s second-hand marketplace, Idlefish.
Sound technology provided by Chinese company
The software developer behind Clubhouse is Alpha Exploration Co., founded in Silicon Valley in February 2020, but its sound technology has been revealed to be backed by Chinese audio technology company Agora.
Angel investor Justin Caldbeck tweeted last summer that Clubhouse was a product built in a week using technology from Chinese company Agora. On Feb. 2 of this year, the South China Morning Post quoted a source as confirming that the technology used by Clubhouse originated from Agora.
Shen Rongqin, an associate professor at York University in Canada, said Agora was behind everything from the popular “online werewolf killing” in 2017 to today’s Clubhouse. He said Bin Zhao, Agora’s founder and CEO, was an expert in video and audio networking for 15 years before founding Agora. He was one of the founding engineers of Webex, a remote conferencing system, and worked with Yuan Zheng, who founded Zoom, a remote videoconferencing software.
Founded in 2013, Agora is a sound technology company with headquarters in Shanghai, China and Silicon Valley, USA. The official website does not mention Clubhouse as a co-developer, but lists more than 50 co-developed apps including China’s Xiaomi, the popular social networking platform Stranger, the voice social interaction software Yumo, the live streaming platform “The South China Morning Post quoted Teng to be a partner developer. Citing qq.com, the South China Morning Post reported that Agora’s user base has doubled in the past five years, with the average monthly usage of real-time audio minutes exceeding 40 billion.
In response, Deutsche Welle reports that neither Agora nor Clubhouse have come forward to confirm their partnership, and Agora has declined to comment on the speculation, but Agora shares have still soared 30 percent.
Will Agora monitor platform content?
When asked how Agora “monitors inappropriate content in its videos,” Zhao Bin, who was interviewed by China’s venture capital and technology innovation information platform CICC X in 2018, responded, “As a technology As a technology provider, we make sure that we are effectively monitoring the content of the video platform.
He cited the system’s ability to automatically identify illegal content and alert service providers based on algorithms and human intelligence, as well as technology from Agora and its partners. In some cases, the system can automatically deactivate the relevant accounts.
According to updated terms of use published by Clubhouse last November, users of the product have agreed to allow the company to temporarily record content “while the room is active”. If a user complains, the recordings will be temporarily retained until the investigation is completed.
In addition, Clubhouse’s privacy policy states that in some cases, personal data may be shared with service providers, including hosting services, voice applications, infrastructure, cloud services and other IT service providers.
Some bloggers refused to use the Chinese software and the Taiwanese legislator called on the public to be careful
Clubhouse exploded in popularity, but also sparked a lot of controversy. Some netizens mentioned on Twitter that Clubhouse encourages users to invite friends through their address book, which is equivalent to inducing users to turn on their address book permissions. Some people are also concerned that Clubhouse claims to be a “listen-and-burn” service, but the content of the chat may be stored by the company. Others are concerned that Clubhouse has a Chinese Communist background and that the information may be used by the Chinese government.
The famous Facebook group leader “Ice Wolf” refused to use Clubhouse, and gave six reasons: 1) Clubhouse’s core technology is the Chinese Communist Party‘s VoiceNet; 2) VoiceNet can request any information from companies according to the Chinese Communist Party’s national intelligence law; 3) the pro-Communist Taiwan Red Media’s Zhongtian News is pushing the software; 4) registering by phone to use Clubhouse is not a good idea. This software; 4, using the phone to register and take the address book contact people feel terrible; 5, Xinjiang Tibetan speech does not know the truth, he does not think that something is really wrong with the community can still speak; 6, the Chinese Communist Party has been training 50 cents to learn the accent and language imitation of various regions.
Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party legislator Guo Guo Wen also has the same doubts, he said that although the Clubhouse platform company is based in the United States, but the core technology behind it is in the Chinese Communist Party. According to the Communist Party’s National Intelligence Law, the national intelligence agency may request the necessary support, assistance and cooperation from relevant organs, organizations and citizens. “When the state needs it, your data is my data.”
Guo believes that when using Clubhouse, the information will be handed over silently at the same time for the company’s statistics and analysis. What’s more scary is that it may also be handed over directly for the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front to collect and apply, fearing that it will become the next Jitterbug, calling on all citizens to be careful of Chinese capital and maintain personal security.
Since Facebook and Twitter have engaged in political blocking, many netizens feel that freedom of speech is no longer available and have sought other platforms, including Parler, Gab, MeWe, Clouthub, Safechat and others. The Chinese are more likely to use safechat, and because more Chinese are stationed there, the Chinese Communist Party is quite disturbed, and recently many self-publishers have taken the wind to smear safechat, while at the same time, Clubhouse has been screened again, a phenomenon that has aroused the concern of some netizens.
Some netizens tweeted, “The Chinese Communist Party has a multi-pronged approach to sabotage safechat, and its intentions are obvious: 1. youtubers who use unreal stories to suck up powder start spreading lies about safechat; 2. personal slander against people who vigorously promote safechat; 3. launch clubhouse to grab market with safechat to grab the market; when you think about it, such a platform that makes ccp piss scared is instead the safest”.
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