The Kremlin said on Monday that a proposal by <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join social networking app Clubhouse was interesting, but that it needed to see more details first.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting after Musk tweeted to the Kremlin on Sunday: “Would you like join me for a conversation on Clubhouse?”

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было бы большой честью поговорить с вами
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1360700181658886147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call: "In general, this is of course a very interesting proposal, but we need to understand what is meant, what is being proposed... first we need to check, then we will react."

Putin, a former KGB officer who once described the Internet as a CIA project, has for years styled himself as suspicious of modern technology.

A surprise chat between tech billionaire&nbsp;Elon&nbsp;Musk&nbsp;and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse&nbsp;propelled the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-asks-russian-president-vladimir-putin-to-join-clubhouse-app-363585">Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to join Clubhouse app</a>

The app, available only on Apple, thrives on the concept of FOMO,&nbsp;fear of missing out. If you're not online when a conversation happens, you miss it.

Users can walk their dog or cook dinner while listening to talks on financing a start-up or the current state of American education&nbsp;or even tune in while playing trivia games.

Unlike podcasts, everything is live and users can participate&nbsp;as long as they are invited to do so by chat moderators.

Star-studded user base

A&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;chat can be mundane but it can also be transformed into a must-hear event if someone famous shows up. In addition to Zuckerberg's and Musk's recent appearances, comedian Kevin Hart popped up in a chat last spring.

For Musk's appearance with the boss of trading app Robinhood, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people was quickly reached, so secondary overflow "rooms" were opened.

The&nbsp;audio app is reviewing its data protection practices, after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

The Kremlin said on Monday that a proposal by Elon Musk for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join social networking app Clubhouse was interesting, but that it needed to see more details first.

The Kremlin said on Monday that a proposal by Elon Musk for Russian President Vladimir Putin to join social networking app Clubhouse was interesting, but that it needed to see more details first. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting after Musk tweeted to the Kremlin on Sunday: “Would you like join me for a conversation on Clubhouse?” было бы большой честью поговорить с вами — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2021 × Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call: "In general, this is of course a very interesting proposal, but we need to understand what is meant, what is being proposed... first we need to check, then we will react." Putin, a former KGB officer who once described the Internet as a CIA project, has for years styled himself as suspicious of modern technology. A surprise chat between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on new audio-based social network Clubhouse propelled the app to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations to the exclusive service. Also read: Tesla CEO Elon Musk asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to join Clubhouse app The app, available only on Apple, thrives on the concept of FOMO, fear of missing out. If you're not online when a conversation happens, you miss it. Users can walk their dog or cook dinner while listening to talks on financing a start-up or the current state of American education or even tune in while playing trivia games. Unlike podcasts, everything is live and users can participate as long as they are invited to do so by chat moderators. Star-studded user base A Clubhouse chat can be mundane but it can also be transformed into a must-hear event if someone famous shows up. In addition to Zuckerberg's and Musk's recent appearances, comedian Kevin Hart popped up in a chat last spring. For Musk's appearance with the boss of trading app Robinhood, the maximum capacity of 5,000 people was quickly reached, so secondary overflow "rooms" were opened. The audio app is reviewing its data protection practices, after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

Kremlin says Musk's idea for Putin to join Clubhouse app interesting, seeks details

US&nbsp;audio app Clubhouse said on Saturday that&nbsp;it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio chat app, exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic when people could not get together in person,&nbsp;but now the once niche platform has far higher goals.

Launched less than a year ago,&nbsp;Clubhouse, which recently encountered a censorship hiccup in China,&nbsp;is looking to establish itself as the standard-bearer for digital audio.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/chinese-users-flocking-to-us-chat-app-clubhouse-to-evade-censors-361942">Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors</a>

Alongside casual conversations about travel and health, users frankly discussed Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and personal experiences of being interrogated by police.&nbsp;But their access to the app was blocked last week, triggering frustration and fears of government surveillance.

The app said in a response to the study, published by the research group at Stanford University, that while it had opted not to make the app available in China, some people had found a workaround to download the app which meant the conversations they were a part of could be transmitted via Chinese servers.

"With the help of researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, we have identified a few areas where we can further strengthen our data protection," the company said in a statement published&nbsp;by the research group on Friday.

"Over the next 72 hours, we are rolling out changes to add additional encryption and blocks to prevent Clubhouse clients from ever transmitting pings to Chinese servers. We also plan to engage an external data security firm to review and validate these changes."

Also read| <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/clubhouse-the-invite-only-chat-app-that-elon-musk-uses-361479">Clubhouse: The invite-only chat app that Elon Musk uses</a>

Launched in early 2020, the app saw global user numbers soar earlier this month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform.

The Stanford Internet Observatory said that it had confirmed that Chinese tech firm Agora Inc supplied back-end infrastructure to Clubhouse, and that Agora would likely have access to users' raw audio, potentially providing access to the Chinese government.

It also said it observed room metadata relayed to servers it believed were hosted in China and audio to servers managed by Chinese entities. It added, however, that it believed the Chinese government would not be able to access the data if the audio was stored in the United States.

US audio app Clubhouse said on Saturday that it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government.

US audio app Clubhouse said on Saturday that it is reviewing its data protection practices after a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory said it contained security flaws that left users' data vulnerable to access by the Chinese government. Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio chat app, exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic when people could not get together in person, but now the once niche platform has far higher goals. Launched less than a year ago, Clubhouse, which recently encountered a censorship hiccup in China, is looking to establish itself as the standard-bearer for digital audio. Also read: Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors Alongside casual conversations about travel and health, users frankly discussed Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and personal experiences of being interrogated by police. But their access to the app was blocked last week, triggering frustration and fears of government surveillance. The app said in a response to the study, published by the research group at Stanford University, that while it had opted not to make the app available in China, some people had found a workaround to download the app which meant the conversations they were a part of could be transmitted via Chinese servers. "With the help of researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, we have identified a few areas where we can further strengthen our data protection," the company said in a statement published by the research group on Friday. "Over the next 72 hours, we are rolling out changes to add additional encryption and blocks to prevent Clubhouse clients from ever transmitting pings to Chinese servers. We also plan to engage an external data security firm to review and validate these changes." Also read| Clubhouse: The invite-only chat app that Elon Musk uses Launched in early 2020, the app saw global user numbers soar earlier this month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform. The Stanford Internet Observatory said that it had confirmed that Chinese tech firm Agora Inc supplied back-end infrastructure to Clubhouse, and that Agora would likely have access to users' raw audio, potentially providing access to the Chinese government. It also said it observed room metadata relayed to servers it believed were hosted in China and audio to servers managed by Chinese entities. It added, however, that it believed the Chinese government would not be able to access the data if the audio was stored in the United States.

Clubhouse is reviewing data protection practices after concerns over security flaws

Mainland China users of the US&nbsp;audio app&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;said they were experiencing internet access disruptions, stoking concerns it had been blocked by China's so-called Great Firewall.

The repression of Muslim Uighurs, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and S&amp;M hook-ups, nothing was off-limits in the rambunctious, unfiltered chatrooms of Clubhouse before China's censors silenced the conversation.

The&nbsp;Clubhouse&nbsp;app is only available on iOS devices and is unavailable in the local Apple app store in China, but mainland Chinese users had been able to access the app by modifying the location of their app store.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/chinese-users-flocking-to-us-chat-app-clubhouse-to-evade-censors-361942">Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors</a>

For around a week, robust, open discussion on China pinballed across the American audio app, recently lent an air of exclusivity after an endorsement from Elon Musk.

It offered mainland and Chinese-speaking users a rare space to dissect taboos across politics and society, a plurality of voices normally muted inside China by the Communist Party.

Then late on Monday, an error message appeared to Chinese users logging on without a VPN to establish a secure connection, a telltale sign that state censors had got hold of the debate.

Users of China's Twitter-like social media app Weibo began posting&nbsp;screenshots of a message the app displayed when they tried to open it which said a secure connection to the server could not be made.

"Under Xi, the ban was a matter of time," said Lokman Tsui, a communications professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, of the reflex to scrub unregulated social media sharpened under China's President Xi Jinping.

Users took to Clubhouse chatrooms and other social media platforms to lament the block, which closed a brief window for freewheeling exchanges in a country where overseas networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been banned.

Many Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly regulated and often censored of content that could undermine the country's ruling Communist Party.

Although Chinese versions of the global platforms have emerged and become part of daily life, Chinese users are aware that content posted on them is monitored and censored.

It is common for social media companies to wipe content considered politically sensitive, including protests and criticism of the government, with users devising measures like screenshots and deliberate typos to skirt censors.

'Living a lie'

On Clubhouse last Saturday, however, more than 1,000 users flocked to a chatroom on the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region.

Rights groups believe at least one million people are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, but Beijing has said they are vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.

At least three people identifying as Uighurs shared personal stories in the Clubhouse chat and several others said they were Han Chinese who had lived in Xinjiang.

A woman said her views changed after living abroad exposed her to more information on Xinjiang.

"I had only been living in a huge lie," she said.

But some struck a more defensive note, with a man countering that "re-education camps" were necessary.

Moderators allowed time for people to talk in the Chinese-language chatroom without interruption, in a conversation that only ended the following afternoon.

On Monday, more than 2,000 users gathered in another chatroom discussing the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, a taboo topic in China.

One said the environment was "dangerous for both sides", referring to civilians and authorities, while another called it outdated to claim that students,&nbsp;who participated in the movement -- were easily "brainwashed".

People from Hong Kong and Taiwan also pitched in on, or moderated, China-related topics.

But the frank exchanges were not limited to big politics.

The night after the Xinjiang chat, in another room, gay men swapped explicit stories of booty calls.

Some talked about engaging in unexpected S&amp;M hook-ups, and others shared anecdotes about taking dates home only to be found out by their parents.

But the door soon slammed shut on the unfettered discussion.

The space for free online discussion has "been drastically reduced" since 2013, the year Xi became president, added Emilie Frenkiel, associate professor at Université Paris Est Créteil, who researches political participation and representation in China.

But she added that the chance for open discourse on sensitive topics with other Chinese-speakers like Taiwanese counterparts "even though very risky, is so rare that... many are still willing to seize it".

A search for "Clubhouse invites", previously for sale on a Chinese online marketplace, no longer turns up results.

Since the ban, Chinese speakers returning to the app discussed ways to circumvent the "Great Firewall", and a chatroom ironically praising a pro-Communist Party editor continues defiantly.

But the wider lament was for the end of a precious space for debate which flickered but was never allowed to flare.

"I came here because it did not have speech censorship," one user said.

Mainland China users of the US audio app Clubhouse said they were experiencing internet access disruptions, stoking concerns it had been blocked by China's so-called Great Firewall.

Mainland China users of the US audio app Clubhouse said they were experiencing internet access disruptions, stoking concerns it had been blocked by China's so-called Great Firewall. The repression of Muslim Uighurs, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and S&M hook-ups, nothing was off-limits in the rambunctious, unfiltered chatrooms of Clubhouse before China's censors silenced the conversation. The Clubhouse app is only available on iOS devices and is unavailable in the local Apple app store in China, but mainland Chinese users had been able to access the app by modifying the location of their app store. Also read: Chinese users flocking to US chat app Clubhouse to evade censors For around a week, robust, open discussion on China pinballed across the American audio app, recently lent an air of exclusivity after an endorsement from Elon Musk. It offered mainland and Chinese-speaking users a rare space to dissect taboos across politics and society, a plurality of voices normally muted inside China by the Communist Party. Then late on Monday, an error message appeared to Chinese users logging on without a VPN to establish a secure connection, a telltale sign that state censors had got hold of the debate. Users of China's Twitter-like social media app Weibo began posting screenshots of a message the app displayed when they tried to open it which said a secure connection to the server could not be made. "Under Xi, the ban was a matter of time," said Lokman Tsui, a communications professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, of the reflex to scrub unregulated social media sharpened under China's President Xi Jinping. Users took to Clubhouse chatrooms and other social media platforms to lament the block, which closed a brief window for freewheeling exchanges in a country where overseas networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been banned. Many Western social media apps including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, where the local internet is tightly regulated and often censored of content that could undermine the country's ruling Communist Party. Although Chinese versions of the global platforms have emerged and become part of daily life, Chinese users are aware that content posted on them is monitored and censored. It is common for social media companies to wipe content considered politically sensitive, including protests and criticism of the government, with users devising measures like screenshots and deliberate typos to skirt censors. 'Living a lie' On Clubhouse last Saturday, however, more than 1,000 users flocked to a chatroom on the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region. Rights groups believe at least one million people are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang, but Beijing has said they are vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism. At least three people identifying as Uighurs shared personal stories in the Clubhouse chat and several others said they were Han Chinese who had lived in Xinjiang. A woman said her views changed after living abroad exposed her to more information on Xinjiang. "I had only been living in a huge lie," she said. But some struck a more defensive note, with a man countering that "re-education camps" were necessary. Moderators allowed time for people to talk in the Chinese-language chatroom without interruption, in a conversation that only ended the following afternoon. On Monday, more than 2,000 users gathered in another chatroom discussing the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, a taboo topic in China. One said the environment was "dangerous for both sides", referring to civilians and authorities, while another called it outdated to claim that students, who participated in the movement -- were easily "brainwashed". People from Hong Kong and Taiwan also pitched in on, or moderated, China-related topics. But the frank exchanges were not limited to big politics. The night after the Xinjiang chat, in another room, gay men swapped explicit stories of booty calls. Some talked about engaging in unexpected S&M hook-ups, and others shared anecdotes about taking dates home only to be found out by their parents. But the door soon slammed shut on the unfettered discussion. The space for free online discussion has "been drastically reduced" since 2013, the year Xi became president, added Emilie Frenkiel, associate professor at Université Paris Est Créteil, who researches political participation and representation in China. But she added that the chance for open discourse on sensitive topics with other Chinese-speakers like Taiwanese counterparts "even though very risky, is so rare that... many are still willing to seize it". A search for "Clubhouse invites", previously for sale on a Chinese online marketplace, no longer turns up results. Since the ban, Chinese speakers returning to the app discussed ways to circumvent the "Great Firewall", and a chatroom ironically praising a pro-Communist Party editor continues defiantly. But the wider lament was for the end of a precious space for debate which flickered but was never allowed to flare. "I came here because it did not have speech censorship," one user said.

'Party over': Chinese users of Clubhouse app say experiencing internet access disruptions

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Kremlin says Musk's idea for Putin to join Clubhouse app interesting, seeks details

Clubhouse is reviewing data protection practices after concerns over security flaws

'Party over': Chinese users of Clubhouse app say experiencing internet access disruptions