Top political China SNS “inaccessible”, angers Chinese netizens.

Lately, more and more websites became “inaccessible” in mainland China, popular ones including Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Besides those foreign websites, there is one Chinese sns site Fanfou, which is one of China’s Top 4 Twitter Clones Rand introduced here previously, also became “inaccessible”. Regarding the reason, nobody has a confirmed answer, some says it is blocked by the government, some says it is Fanfou’s ISP# been expired……

Since Fanfou being “inaccessible”, and since many former Fanfou users have already got used to sending out some tweets once a while, they “reallocated” to another “China Twitter” – Digu. After moving, those former Fanfouers sent out tweets on Digu to expressed what they feel about Fanfou’s inaccessible, and what they think is the difference between Fanfou and Digu; which is:

Fanfou is more informative and its users tend to discuss political issues while Digu is more a place to talk about small daily issues; this probably is what made Fanfou a victim of government control.

Below are some of the tweets I collected from Digu:

it的爱好者
Lots of people have expressed that Digu is more about entertainment while Fanfou is more informative with insights.

baaaa
Lots of people on Fanfou talked about politics, this is very dangerous in China. It’s ok to talk about women, men, even sex life now, but politics is a forbidden topic to discuss. The government prefers to seeing us becoming paralyzed by all kinds of entertainment than seeing us finding out the real truth.

忍饭
In this country, citizens don’t even have the right to use 140 words to judge something. Fanfou’s being blocked, I don’t think it’s Fanfou’s sorrow, I think it is the whole country, the whole nation’s sorrow……

Baddy风
If Fanfou deserves to be closed down because someone’s “inappropriate” use, does that mean we should cut off internet access when someone misuses the Internet, or stop using RMB when someone embezzles?

阿司匹林
If Fanfou really died, let’s make Digu the next one being banned, then Twitter. I don’t think the Central Government can govern anywhere, at least America is off-limits. If the worst comes to the worst, we can use proxy browsers too. All the Fanfouers, give me high five!

李佳晓
We Fanfouers do love China, but China does not love us back. This kind of one-way relationship probably will never become a healthy and long lasting love.

一周年扁爱饭
Since I reallocated to Digu, I found here has two kind of users: the ones follow people like crazy, the ones only have name in their profile. I miss my Fanfou, and want it back.

柒葉
Nothing can compare to Fanfou. I‘ll wait, wait with my determination. Honestly, all microblogs are pretty much the same. The difference lies in the atmosphere, which needs to be constructed, and can’t be copied.

NetPuter
Recently I saw lots of tweets about Fanfou. Why you didn’t say any good thing about is when it was still “alive”? Fanfou was not born for politics but it surely died for it. I’m not a big fan of Fanfou, but I do hope that one day politics can keep its hands off Internet.

弗兰肯斯坦
Actually, Fanfou and Digu have different brand positions. We Fanfouers were just at a loss when Fanfou was suddenly shutdown and couldn’t find a substitution. I’m glad there is Digu, but I’m not really want to stay here permanently.

Godot
Digu and Fanfou have different orientations. Digu is all about real-time updates and Fanfou is somewhere you can share your views and comments with a group of people have similar opinions.

李松
If you want to talk about politics issues, then go to Fanfou; if you only want to update some life trifle then come to Digu. This is Digu’s brand position, a guarantee that it can survive in China.

上矢伊奈
Hope Fanfou will get better soon, cause when Fanfou users combines with Digu users, it is so weird. I used both Fanfou and Digu, because I think the atmosphere are completely different on those two sites. I don’t feel there is any redundancy. Fanfou is more like a forum so it is fun, while Digu gives me the real feeling of microblogging.

妩媚娘
I don’t really see the difference between Digu and Fanfou. I’m thinking if Fanfou can be accessed again, shall I just stay at Digu or go back to Fanfou? Too many options makes me don’t know what to do…

小肥羊
There is one thing not so good about Fanfou – a lot of people go there to talk about politics mainly for showing off. This is probably the reason why it got banned.

黑乌龙
Fanfou is a place to talk about politics, and Digu is more lifestyle, I think I rather use the latter one.

Max
Digu has a much more attractive interface compare to Fanfou, and I’m into appearance. I’m not sure I want to go back when Fanfou becomes accessible again.

苏乏
It was proved that Digu has more powerful function on sending out tweets. Many microblogs allow RSS from other websites, but usually don’t allow RSS from other microblogs. Tweets on Fanfou and Twitter cann’t be RSSed to Digu, but Digu can work the other way around.

熙望
I don’t want to go back to Fanfou anymore, it is too unstable when comes to political issues.

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