Home

Clubhouse app access troubles in China

Brenda GohAAP
Chinese users of the audio discussion app Clubhouse are experiencing access issues.
Camera IconChinese users of the audio discussion app Clubhouse are experiencing access issues.

Chinese users of the audio discussion app Clubhouse are experiencing access disruptions, stoking concerns that it has been blocked in the country.

Clubhouse users took to Chinese social media app Weibo to say they were having access issues and posted screenshots of a message the app displayed when they tried to open it.

The Clubhouse app had in recent days attracted masses of new users from mainland China, who discussed topics that included sensitive ones like Xinjiang detention camps, Taiwan independence and Hong Kong's national security law.

Many users had over the weekend marveled on social media about how the app was still accessible in China.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

Many Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly regulated and often censored for content that could undermine the country's ruling Communist Party.

No official statement has yet been made about the app. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's top internet regulator, did not respond to phone calls made outside its office hours.

"Clubhouse has been walled" said one Weibo user, referring to the system China uses to regulate its internet.

"This is just too fast," said another.

Launched in early 2020, Clubhouse saw explosive growth in global user numbers earlier this month after Tesla boss Elon Musk and Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform.

Its chat rooms are only accessible via invites from current members invites to the platform were selling for between 50 to 400 yuan ($A10-81) on popular Chinese e-commerce sites.

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails