Thread by @JChengWSJ

And poof. Just like that, Clubhouse—and its rare outpouring of freewheeling debate on taboo topics in the Chinese-speaking world—appears to have been cut off in mainland China. A lovely requiem for the hit Silicon Valley audio-only chat app by @xinwenfan
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@xinwenfan On Monday evening, Clubhouse users from Beijing to Shenzhen said their chats—some of which touched on the plight of China’s Uighur Muslims or the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989—were disconnected mid-conversation, replaced by an error message.
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@xinwenfan Thousands then quickly swamped newly created Clubhouse chat rooms to confirm the blockage after climbing back in using VPNs to circumvent China’s internet firewall. After trading notes, they concluded Chinese censorship was the likely culprit.
@xinwenfan on.wsj.com/3q4E8nR

@xinwenfan Clubhouse users in China had been anticipating a crackdown in the week since the invite-only app began drawing large flocks of new mainland Chinese users. For a moment, it conjured up memories of unblocked Twitter and Facebook a decade earlier.
@xinwenfan
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@xinwenfan In one Clubhouse chat group featuring the voices of food delivery workers, discussion quickly became heated after two of the app’s product managers joined. Long after the delivery workers had left the chat, users continued to debate how they were treated.
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@xinwenfan Clubhouse's surge in China coincided with the first anniversary of the death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, whose death triggered a brief storm of dissent unseen for years in China. On Saturday, users created a chat room to offer a silent tribute to Dr. Li.
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@xinwenfan Hours before the Clubhouse access problems in mainland China, thousands gathered in one chat room created by @badiucao. There, the exiled artist @aiww shared his own experiences about living under surveillance.
@xinwenfan
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@xinwenfan @badiucao @aiww The #MeToo activist Xianzi lost access to her 6,700 Clubhouse followers, but was up to 90 on a new account. Thousands in one chat room exchanged memories of 1989, while in another Hong Kong protesters took questions from Cantonese speakers in Guangzhou.
on.wsj.com/3q4E8nR