Inside China Today

Closure of Skype group chat upsets Chinese netizens

Internet communication service provider Skype suspended its Public Chatting service on September 1, igniting protest from users. Some have speculated whether this is a closed door deal between Skype and the Chinese Communist Party adding to the list of regime’s interference with the freedom of speech.
Netizen Mr Mao says it is very unusual for Skype to close its Public Chatting service and believes this to be a continuation of the Chinese Communist regime’s suppression of the freedom of cyber speech. He says that during the Olympics, many people were unable to log into Public Chat rooms to chat, but Skype was only closed afterwards. He believes the access to Skype Public Chat during the Olympics was merely a notional gesture and it is likely that the current suspension is a behind closed doors deal between the communist regime and Skype.

Skype stated on its website that the decision to suspend the service was to prepare for an improved service. Mr Mao says this is unusual for software development businesses as normally a new product would first be ready to replace its predecessor before the old version is taken down.

One netizen says it is puzzling for Skype not to publish such a big decision on its home page, and the closure of Public Chat rooms have drawn protests by users of other countries.

Another netizen says the announcement published on the website has attracted many protests and most believe the reason given in the announcement was rather farfetched.

According to sources Skype entered the Chinese market in partnership with Hong Kong invested Tom.com, and Chinese users have alleged that the Skype software downloaded on Tom.com is an insecure version able to be monitored by internet police of the Chinese communist regime.

The above news is brought to you by Wen Hong, Lou Lan and Chris Thomas for Inside China Today on the SOH Radio Network.