Clubhouse: China bans invite-only voice chat app that was used for sensitive discussions

(AFP via Getty Images)

China has banned the invite-only app Clubhouse after it was used for sensitive political discussions.

The voice chat app – which allows people to discuss in public, in a format similar to a broadcasted group call – had hosted discussions with people abroad about topics including Taiwan and China's treatment of Uighur Muslims.

Now the app is no longer accessible from within the country.

The ban brings it in line with thousands of other apps that are blocked under China's "Great Firewall". Facebook, Twitter and many other large social networks and websites are unavailable after being banned by authorities.

Service to users in China was interrupted at about 7pm local time on Monday in Beijing, according to GreatFire.org, a non-profit group in the United States that monitors Chinese internet filtering and tries to help users circumvent it.

President Xi Jinping's government refuses to acknowledge the existence of its internet filters, but researchers abroad trace blockages to servers within state-owned China Telecom Ltd through which internet traffic into and out of China is required to pass.

Mr Xi's government promotes what it calls "internet sovereignty", or the right of political leaders to limit what their publics see online.

Clubhouse temporarily gave Chinese users an uncensored forum to talk about politically sensitive issues.

Unlike many other social media apps, it uses oral conversation, which allowed users in China to talk directly to people in Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by the Communist Party as part of its territory, and others abroad.

Topics for recent discussions included the Xinjiang region in China's north west, where the Communist Party has interned more than one million ethnic Muslims.

The service requires users to be invited to join and to give their names and phone numbers.

That prompted warnings Chinese users might face official retaliation.

There has been no indication whether anyone in China has been punished for using the service.

Additional reporting by Press Association