The online audio social media mobile App Clubhouse exploded overnight in mainland China, only to be blocked by Chinese authorities after a few days of glitz and glamour. In a world where social media apps seem to be everywhere, how did the Clubhouse app manage to explode in mainland China and elsewhere in the world? In other words, why were people so enamored with Clubhouse from the beginning until today, and what are the security concerns about Clubhouse? What are the implications for the Chinese after it is blocked in mainland China? What are the prospects for its future development around the world? These questions are still being tracked by researchers on all sides.
People are making new discoveries with Clubhouse
The term Clubhouse means “club house”. The name reflects the idea of the app, which is to bring people together, as if in a club, where people from all continents with different interests can come to this cyberspace club, choose to enter different rooms to listen to others, raise their hands, or act as a moderator for a room.
The sight of a software that allows people from all over the world to come together and chat can quickly explode on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year and then be quickly blocked a few days later, a sight with Chinese characteristics that makes international news. The Washington Post, a major U.S. newspaper, published a Feb. 14 editorial headlined “Brief gap in Great Firewall highlights Chinese people’s desire for free speech. The editorial described what happened to Clubhouse in China and what people found out through Clubhouse as follows.
“The invitation-only speaking platform from Silicon Valley (in mainland China) lasted only a few days before it was banned by the authorities. One can easily see why. Users from mainland China suddenly have access to an environment where they are not only encouraged to speak, but also to listen (people must wait in line for their turn to speak), and people flock to rooms dedicated to topics that are taboo in China, including the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, today’s cultural targeting of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, the The extermination of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang today, and the silencing of a doctor who warned people about the coronavirus.
“Such conversations (in Clubhouse rooms) are not only remarkable for their topics, but also for their speakers. Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Chinese from all over the world gathered together. Stereotypes held by each other collapsed – many mainlanders heard firsthand from the families of those imprisoned in Xinjiang about their horrific experiences, which until then mainlanders had thought were nonsense; those overseas Chinese heard from mainlanders themselves, and their words showed that they were not at all clear-cut party-state lackeys.”
What’s the appeal of Clubhouse
A Voice of America reporter recently sat in on a presentation at Clubhouse in a room devoted to what makes Clubhouse so fascinating. The speakers stated what they felt was glamorous/attractive from their own personal experiences at Clubhouse, which included.
–This type of speaking where everyone is on equal footing and takes turns to speak, with no timeouts, is very good civic and democratic training, and this type of speaking is a new experience for the vast majority of mainland Chinese, which makes them feel new and invigorated; furthermore, while waiting to speak (in a room with a large number of people asking to speak In addition, while waiting to speak (in a large room with many people asking to speak, users may have to wait two or three hours to speak), they will hear the different points of view of others, and they will thus be able to clearly realize the value of listening.
— listening to others, one finds so many talented people, and the number of speakers with impressive eloquence and poise, almost one after another, one after the other, is surprising and amazing, and their statements are approachable, insightful, and calm in tone, even when they are about complex and potentially infuriating matters.
— The presenters in each room seemed to be specially trained, but they actually came from different backgrounds, had different accents, and were mostly untrained in this area, yet almost every one of them was able to moderate the presentations with poise; one user watched as his wife took over on the spot from a presenter who was walking away When she took over the baton smoothly and hosted a large room of nearly 1,000 people for five hours, and finally had to step down and hand over the baton because she had to eat dinner, people in the room expressed their fondness and praised her for her gracefulness and smooth hosting, a situation that led the user to exclaim: I did not expect to have an excellent host hidden around me; this situation also made many users realize that there are the many talents and the huge amount of talent among them, which made them feel excited.
–The rise of new media on the Internet has allowed extremist ideas and speech to flourish, and attacks and name-calling have become a commonplace routine or norm, but Clubhouse requires speakers to do their best to state their opinions, not to directly refute others, to speak civilly, and for speakers to be well-founded, an agreed-upon This unwritten rule is a change from the usual headache of Internet speech; this way of speaking also makes the so-called pinky speeches, which feature mechanical repetition of the official propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party, unmarketable, because the old and tedious speeches of pinkies always end in embarrassment.
— the power of presenting oneself; for example, a female university student in Shanghai who was apparently Han Chinese spoke in a room talking about the Xinjiang concentration camp issue, saying that she had a classmate from Xinjiang, and that classmate could not see her mother because her mother could not see her; she had a sister who was studying abroad, and she could not see her sister either She had a sister who was studying abroad and she couldn’t see her sister either because she couldn’t come back; the college woman was very careful with her wording and didn’t mention the concentration camps or the minorities, but she sobbed twice during her short speech, giving the audience in the room a shock.
One Chinese Clubhouse user, who asked not to be identified, told VOA that the Chinese Communist authorities have pursued racial oppression and cultural genocide against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, especially the Uighurs, while at the same Time they have engaged in misleading propaganda and strictly forbidden discussion of Xinjiang issues among Han Chinese, who make up the majority of China’s population, making it almost impossible to hear Han Chinese voices expressing sympathy for the Uighurs and other This situation has led some Uighur and other minority rights activists to lament and resent the selfishness, lack of concern, and lack of sympathy for the plight of minorities among Han Chinese; this Shanghai university student’s statement clearly demonstrates that Han Chinese in mainland China still have a strong sense of sympathy, but they are just unable to help themselves under the harsh oppression of the CCP’s authoritarian dictatorship.
Why the Chinese Communist authorities want to ban Clubhouse
Within days of Clubhouse’s short-lived splash in China, thousands of people inside and outside of China predicted that the Communist authorities would not allow Clubhouse to continue to exist in China. After it was “walled off” (i.e., blocked by a national information blocking mechanism known as a firewall), June T. Dreyer, a professor of political science at the University of Miami in Florida, explained in succinct terms why the Communist authorities must ban Clubhouse in one fell swoop. Clubhouse.
People posting on the Internet can be quickly removed by the authorities’ opinion controllers,” said Professor Kim. But Clubhouse is just a voice, and it’s hard for the authorities to get rid of voices that they don’t like. Therefore, it would be very difficult to control. The authorities are very worried about public opinion getting out of control.”
Professor Jin Defang, who has been studying China issues for years, said that there are so many things that Chinese people want to complain about today, such as the refusal to import Australian coal because the Chinese Communist authorities want to punish Australia for advocating an independent investigation into the cause of the New coronavirus outbreak that hit China and affected the whole world, and the lack of fuel that has led to many Chinese people having to endure a harsh winter; in addition, human rights, Xinjiang and Hong Kong issues the Chinese Communist Party and its The Chinese Communist Party and its government do not want people to talk about human rights, Xinjiang and Hong Kong because they are afraid of the repercussions of such discussions.
Professor Jin Defang said that it would be unwise for the Chinese authorities to “wall off” Clubhouse. She said, “The authorities could wall off Clubhouse, but people would be very angry because they like it so much. So I think the authorities will make more people angry, and they will look for more ways to voice their discontent. (The CCP authorities apparently don’t understand) sometimes it’s best to let people voice the complaints they want to voice, and after the complaints are voiced, they’ll feel better.”
When Clubhouse was hot in China, many predicted that it would sooner or later be banned by the Chinese Communist authorities. But many did not expect the Chinese Communist authorities to ban it so quickly. The seemingly impatient move by the Chinese authorities to ban it in full view of the world has also caused some confusion among many observers of China issues.
The confusion is multifaceted, including the fact that few people in mainland China have access to the Clubhouse app because of the multiple conditions required to use the mobile app. The first is that the app is only available on Apple phones as of now, and less than 10 percent of all cell phone users in mainland China are Apple users. Furthermore, Apple phone users in mainland China must be registered abroad in order to download the Clubhouse app. These multiple conditions for use of the Clubhouse app have resulted in very few users in mainland China.
Why Authorities Fear Fewer Users
This situation has left many China watchers and Chinese netizens in general wondering – if there are so few smartphone users in mainland China who can use the Clubhouse app compared to all cell phone users in mainland China, why are the authorities so eager to block the app and make themselves the laughing stock of the world? Why would the authorities be so eager to block the app and make themselves the laughing stock of the world?
Yu Ping, a New York-based legal scholar and independent commentator, offers a simple explanation: “A term that has recently become popular in China is political security. It is a term that has become popular in China recently, from the Chinese media to official foreign statements. This term reflects a mentality.”
Yu Ping points out that in this world there are terms such as personal security, Life security, property security, engineering security, information security, etc., but the Chinese Communist authorities have come up with a term unique in the world, “political security,” which is nothing but a declaration that the Chinese Communist regime is determined to maintain its monopoly of power, refusing to accept constraints, refusing and resolutely suppressing the people’s right to choose their government. This is a declaration that the CCP regime is determined to maintain its monopoly of power, refusing to accept constraints and resolutely suppressing the people’s right to choose their government.
Yu Ping said the Communist authorities’ banning of Clubhouse is based on this so-called political security mindset. He said, “Although the people who use it are few and far between, and the identities of those people are connected to foreign countries, and the Apple phones they use must be registered abroad, the people who own them in China now also belong to a more active class, the Chinese proletariat, the intellectual class, and for the authorities, these people need more control.”
Yu Ping, who has been following the legal and media issues in mainland China under the Chinese Communist Party for many years, goes on to say that, in short, one of the main features or essence of the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship, as well as all dictatorships in the past and in the present, is to manipulate everything, and this manipulation includes information and public opinion. For the CCP, the failure to manipulate information and to guide public opinion is an intolerable threat to its survival.
Yu Ping said that the Chinese Communist authorities are afraid of the people’s free access to information, of being well-informed, and of speaking freely. The banning of clubhouse, the banning of VPN software that people can use to climb over the Internet information blocking wall, and the setting up of numerous restricted speech zones are all manifestations of this fear.
I think some political scientists would say that this kind of move [to wall off Clubhouse] shows that the Communist government is in an obviously very passive and awkward position,” said Kim De Fang, a professor of political science at the University of Miami. An assertive government can let people say whatever they want, no matter how outrageous what they say is.”
What it means to be “walled” in China
A Feb. 14 editorial in the Washington Post about the Communist authorities’ blocking of Clubhouse said, “The Communist regime could replicate the format of Clubhouse if it wanted to, but it can’t replicate the network. The essence of this network is to teach people about exactly what the government doesn’t want them to know and learn.”
Critics of the Communist regime point out that before blocking Clubhouse, the Communist regime had already blocked every prominent social media application or Internet site in the world today that it could not control, such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, snapchat, Instagram, video sharing site YouTube, etc. This wanton denial of people’s right to access information violates This reckless denial of access to information violates the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and undermines the basic human rights of the Chinese people.
Yu Ping, a legal scholar, said that the Chinese Communist authorities block social media tools that they cannot control, while those that they can control, such as WeChat and Weibo, are easily blocked, deleted, banned, banned from groups, permanently banned, and deleted from accounts.
Yu Ping said, “The restricted use of social media tools has greatly limited Chinese creativity and, to put it more deeply, China’s ability to innovate on its own in science and technology. Because without free thinking, where is the ability to innovate?”
The people Yu Ping is referring to as being harmed by the Chinese Communist authorities’ blocking of free social media are obviously the masses in China today, because this blocking or blocking denies them the opportunity to access and learn from fresh ideas and knowledge, and to exercise and improve their thinking skills.
But in China today, those who previously had free access to Clubhouse and those who still find ways to continue using the app are what communication scholars see as curious and better informed about the outside world. In the opinion of DeFang Jin, a professor of political science at the University of Miami, the damage done to these people by the Communist authorities’ blocking of Clubhouse is limited.
I would say that people who have something to say will always find a way to say it,” Kim said. They can be silenced, they can be bounced, but they will still find a way to speak out. They are talented people.”
Security concerns and prospects for growth
To many observers and researchers, it is mind-boggling that the instant conversation app Clubhouse has exploded in popularity in countries around the world because the app essentially looks like a long-familiar audio conference, teleconferencing, with not much novelty. While Clubhouse’s technology has been developed to allow users around the world to come together to listen to each other, taking turns or speaking simultaneously without sound delays, which greatly enhances the user experience, this improvement in the user experience alone hardly explains why Clubhouse is so captivating to millions of users, while teleconferencing tends to make people yawn, even though most teleconferences also speak without There is no sound delay in most conference calls.
The unexplainable appeal of Clubhouse holds exciting possibilities that its users and developers are eagerly exploring that could make a big difference.
Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwanese entrepreneur and computer science researcher who has held key positions at Apple, Microsoft and Google, offered his thoughts on the current state and future of Clubhouse while answering questions from questioners from around the world at Clubhouse on Feb. 16 in the evening EST.
Lee said that Clubhouse has been very successful so far, attracting millions of users from all over the world, and that these users belong to the elite in various fields, and the quality of their speech and questions is very high, which makes him willing to answer questions directly in front of the audience in Clubhouse rather than in a noisy background like Twitter or Facebook; but this success of Clubhouse can also be a double-edged sword. may be a double-edged sword, a bottleneck in its development; one needs to see if it can spread from the elite to the general public in the next two or three years, making it as popular as Facebook and becoming another phenomenal success story.
On February 12, Stanford University’s research institute, Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), published a research report titled “Clubhouse in China: Is His Data Secure? “. The report identifies Agora, a Shanghai, China-based company that develops real-time audio and video interaction technology, as the company providing back-end technical support for Clubhouse.
The report says that SoundNet acknowledges that they must follow Chinese law and provide the necessary assistance and support for investigations involving national security and crime. If the Chinese government identifies an audio file as a threat to national security, SoundNet is legally obligated to help the government locate and store that audio.
A growing number of observers inside and outside of China have noted that the Chinese Communist regime has become increasingly comfortable in recent years with threatening the Chinese community at large, and indeed people around the world, with what it calls political security based on the broad concept of national security by criminalizing statements, even if they are made by a Chinese (or foreigner) on a foreign website that is not accessible to the Chinese public and that upsets the Communist authorities. criminalized.
On the other hand, most Clubhouse users around the world, including Chinese users, currently show no apparent concern and are still eagerly exploring the fascinating possibilities of Clubhouse.
There is every indication that the main fascinating aspect of the Clubhouse app is the diversity of topics and perspectives it brings to its users. Through the app, users have access to countless topics such as travel, cooking, dating, sexual fantasies, politics, Culture, diplomacy, Education, literature, languages, dialects, and many more.
At the same time, even on the same topic, such as why pinkies seem to be especially prevalent in foreign countries, the opinions of the speakers were very diverse. The room hosted by the Chinese woman mentioned above, who took over as moderator on an ad hoc basis, was on the topic of why pinkies seem to be particularly prevalent in foreign countries.
She was warmly praised for her hosting and was exclaimed by her husband as having a great host lurking around. The woman said there was actually a super simple trick to her big five-hour success, which was to do her best as the host to talk less herself, so that the room and the occasional visitor could hear that she was trying to give more speaking time to the speaker, while politely reminding the speaker to be careful not to speak too much overtime.
Because of the large number of people waiting to speak, she said, each speaker is generally limited to three minutes; while a three-minute presentation cannot go deeply into any issue, and the two thirty-second responses that follow it even less so, the diversity of speakers, the diversity of viewpoints, is in itself fascinating and inspiring.
Those diverse viewpoints spoke about how precisely pinkies should be defined, whether the so-called pinkies seem to be particularly numerous abroad is an untrue impression, why men seem to be more likely to be pinkies abroad, whether people lack sufficient understanding and sympathy for pinkies, whether the pinkie perspective has merit, and so on and so forth.
Right now the Clubhouse app is still in an explosive phase of development, and its direction and future are hard to predict. Its users are exploring more uses for it, its developers are exploring improvements and additions to its functionality, and the unpredictability of this development makes the app particularly exciting and stimulating for users. It remains to be seen whether it will have a phenomenal run in the next two or three years or whether it will end up with no buzz at all.
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