Elon Musk’s X becomes top trending topic on China’s Weibo after outage, taking many netizens by surprise
- Focus on X has surprised many Chinese internet users, given that it cannot be accessed directly
- X was down for more than an hour on Thursday and the platform was unable to refresh timelines.
Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, has become a top trending topic on Chinese equivalent Weibo after an outage, even though X is not directly accessible in mainland China.
The topic #TwitterDown topped the trending list on Weibo on Thursday afternoon and stayed on it around two-and-a-half hours, attracting 190 million views and 83,000 engagements, according to data from the Chinese microblogging site.
X can only be accessed through a virtual private network in mainland China as it is blocked by the country’s Great Firewall.
The focus on X has surprised many Chinese netizens, given that it cannot be accessed directly.
Financial influencer Xiyangsimu, followed by 1.4 million on Weibo, jokingly asked “what is Twitter” and if it was time to “find out who is bypassing the Great Firewall”, a censorship tool used to block access to Western platforms such as Google and X.
X was down for more than an hour on Thursday and the platform was unable to refresh timelines.
