Chinese s Saw Zoom as a Window Through the 'Great Firewall' 475l65 Gadgets 360

The Chinese government heavily regulates the Internet, in a system widely dubbed the Great Firewall, saying this is needed to maintain social stability. r4f3q

By Reuters | Updated: 12 June 2020 18:59 IST

Chinese s Saw Zoom as a Window Through the 'Great Firewall'

China regulates its Internet heavily 1t2s30

Highlights

Zoom's China s have been subject to new constraints since last month
Zoom saw its popularity in China soar in tandem with COVID-19 pandemic
Zoom had suspended s of activists on China's request

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Zoom Video Communications has gained a following in China in recent months from s ranging from underground churches to feminists who saw it as a rare way to connect with the world beyond the reach of state censors.

Some fear that window may be closing.

On Friday, suspended s of three US and Hong Kong activists at Beijing's request after they tried to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, but that they had since been reactivated. The US company also said it was developing technology to enable it to remove or block participants based on geography.

The Chinese government heavily regulates the Internet, in a system widely dubbed the Great Firewall, saying this is needed to maintain social stability. All Chinese social media platforms are required to censor public posts deemed illegal.

"For us, the biggest challenge has been how to reach people within China because of the firewall, and Zoom for a while looked like a ray of hope," said US-based Humanitarian China founder Zhou Fengsuo, whose was suspended.

The conferencing tool, originally designed for business use, saw Chinese numbers surge in tandem with its global popularity amid the Facebook are blocked in China's cyberspace.

Zoom's mobile app has been ed 5.4 million times from Apple's China store since January 1, 11 times the number over the same period in 2019, according to research firm SensorTower.

While most Chinese s turn to Zoom for conference calls and casual chats, some have seized the chance to discuss potentially sensitive topics, from patriotism to feminism.

Some state-approved and underground churches use Zoom to hold services.

"Zoom is not the only software, but we feel it's rather more accessible," said Xiao Meili, a feminist activist who held a Zoom talk in April on the #MeToo movement.

"Before, some friends recommended WeChat.

Inside the firewall
In March, Youth Lectures kicked off a series of Zoom talks, the first of which was led by Chinese University of Hong Kong professor Chow Po Chung, on freedom of speech in China. Chow's mainland China on the Weibo has been deleted multiple times.

Other anonymous groups hosted lectures from a #MeToo activist and a gender-activist on their work in mid-May.

New York-based Lu Pin, whose influential Feminist Voices s on Weibo and WeChat were shut by authorities in 2018, said Zoom was a way to connect a Chinese audience to the outside world.

"You don't have to climb the firewall, people in China and outside of China both can connect to it," she said.

There are few alternatives, she said.

"This is not a multiple-choice question. If you're a Chinese person, if you don't use this, what will you use?"

Zoom's China s had already been subject to new constraints since last month when the company announced that free s would no longer be able host meetings, and new registrations were limited to some enterprises.

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