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So if WeChat is basically the only messaging app allowed in China, and WeChat is not allowed to be used in India, is there any widely available platform that In

So if WeChat is basically the only messaging app allowed in China, and WeChat is not allowed to be used in India, is there any widely available platform that Indian citizens can use to chat with Chinese citizens? Making it impossible or at least very difficult to communicate with people in another country seems like it’s only going to make any divide even worse in the long term. Think of the fallout of Facebook filter bubbles but to an extreme, by making it very difficult to even communicate with someone in a different culture with different viewpoints.

ppeetteerr 6y ago
You can send a text message...
- crispyporkbites 6y ago
  International text messages can cost a fortune to send
  - bluGill 6y ago
    Or even receive in some cases. My driver in India was paranoid that I might get his number because I receiving a text could cost more than a days wages.
ketzu 6y ago
> So if WeChat is basically the only messaging app allowed in China How did you get that impression? There are a ton of chinese messanging apps, e.g., QQ, which is also on the list of banned apps.
- technobum 6y ago
  Great job refuting your own point. QQ is owned by the same parent company as WeChat (Tencent). Tencent is also implementing the Chinese Social Credit Score system, and so in my humble opinion, is the tech arm of the chinese government.
  - ketzu 6y ago
    It really comes down to what "basically the only one" means. But I wouldn't aggree that "google hangouts is basically the only messaging app" would even extend to all the other messaging apps google ever produced. (Please note that this is an example of formulation and what I consider that encompasses, not that hangouts is the only messaging app in any context.) But besides that: There exist further chinese messengers and non chinese messengers that are not blocked in china. The rest is, in my opinion, irrelevant to the topic of wechat being the only chinese messaging app.
jshah111 6y ago
WhatsApp is incredibly popular in India.
- jumelles 6y ago
  And blocked in China.
  - zuron7 6y ago
    Recently unblocked.
    - ciarannolan 6y ago
      From the Wiki: >WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, whose main social media service has been blocked in China since 2009.[208] In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.[209][210] >According to Time, Sarsenbek Akaruli, 45, a veterinarian and trader from Ili, Xinjiang, was arrested in Xinjiang on November 2, 2017. As of November 2019, he is still in a detention camp. According to his wife Gulnur Kosdaulet, Akaruli was put in the camp after police found the banned messaging app WhatsApp on his cell phone. Kosdaulet, a citizen of neighboring Kazakhstan, has traveled to Xinjiang on four occasions to search for her husband but could not get help from friends in the Communist Party of China. Kosdaulet said of her friends, "Nobody wanted to risk being recorded on security cameras talking to me in case they ended up in the camps themselves."[211] Are they still putting people in concentration camps for having an app on their phone?
jumelles 6y ago
Would iMessage work between India and China?
- sa1 6y ago
  Facetime works.
president 6y ago
Have you ever thought that maybe China shouldn't banned all foreign social media and messaging services in the first place? They literally divided the world by putting up a wall between themselves and the rest of the globe, the Great Firewall. Besides, the divide between China and the rest of the world has already happened on the ideological level.
tanilama 6y ago
Telegram....
- hnarn 6y ago
  Please do some research, Telegram has never worked in China for any extended period of time.
sa1 6y ago
Signal works inside China, as long as you installed it outside.
kortilla 6y ago
The language barrier already guarantees that. Only 12.6 percent of Indians speak English and only 6.4 percent of Chinese speak English. The overlap is worse with any other common language.
Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
Email should work. Or XMPP.

ppeetteerr 6y ago

You can send a text message...

crispyporkbites 6y ago
International text messages can cost a fortune to send
- bluGill 6y ago
  Or even receive in some cases. My driver in India was paranoid that I might get his number because I receiving a text could cost more than a days wages.

ketzu 6y ago

> So if WeChat is basically the only messaging app allowed in China How did you get that impression? There are a ton of chinese messanging apps, e.g., QQ, which is also on the list of banned apps.

technobum 6y ago
Great job refuting your own point. QQ is owned by the same parent company as WeChat (Tencent). Tencent is also implementing the Chinese Social Credit Score system, and so in my humble opinion, is the tech arm of the chinese government.
- ketzu 6y ago
  It really comes down to what "basically the only one" means. But I wouldn't aggree that "google hangouts is basically the only messaging app" would even extend to all the other messaging apps google ever produced. (Please note that this is an example of formulation and what I consider that encompasses, not that hangouts is the only messaging app in any context.) But besides that: There exist further chinese messengers and non chinese messengers that are not blocked in china. The rest is, in my opinion, irrelevant to the topic of wechat being the only chinese messaging app.

jshah111 6y ago

WhatsApp is incredibly popular in India.

jumelles 6y ago
And blocked in China.
- zuron7 6y ago
  Recently unblocked.
  - ciarannolan 6y ago
    From the Wiki: >WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, whose main social media service has been blocked in China since 2009.[208] In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.[209][210] >According to Time, Sarsenbek Akaruli, 45, a veterinarian and trader from Ili, Xinjiang, was arrested in Xinjiang on November 2, 2017. As of November 2019, he is still in a detention camp. According to his wife Gulnur Kosdaulet, Akaruli was put in the camp after police found the banned messaging app WhatsApp on his cell phone. Kosdaulet, a citizen of neighboring Kazakhstan, has traveled to Xinjiang on four occasions to search for her husband but could not get help from friends in the Communist Party of China. Kosdaulet said of her friends, "Nobody wanted to risk being recorded on security cameras talking to me in case they ended up in the camps themselves."[211] Are they still putting people in concentration camps for having an app on their phone?

jumelles 6y ago

Would iMessage work between India and China?

sa1 6y ago
Facetime works.

president 6y ago

Have you ever thought that maybe China shouldn't banned all foreign social media and messaging services in the first place? They literally divided the world by putting up a wall between themselves and the rest of the globe, the Great Firewall. Besides, the divide between China and the rest of the world has already happened on the ideological level.

tanilama 6y ago

Telegram....

hnarn 6y ago
Please do some research, Telegram has never worked in China for any extended period of time.

sa1 6y ago

Signal works inside China, as long as you installed it outside.

kortilla 6y ago

The language barrier already guarantees that. Only 12.6 percent of Indians speak English and only 6.4 percent of Chinese speak English. The overlap is worse with any other common language.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago

Email should work. Or XMPP.