Not only did Ma form an official partnership with Beijing’s CDC, the agency later invited him to a 2012 conference where he unexpectedly connected with Li and told the political leader to his face that he ran a website for gay people. Li, who is widely seen as one of the more liberal members of China’s ruling elite, responded positively. That single political endorsement helped Blud convince investors that the app was not in danger of being shut down, Liu said.
Empire Strikes Back
The reason why dancing on China’s Great Firewall is so difficult is because the ground beneath is inherently unstable: content allowed today can suddenly be banned tomorrow.
We reported in November that Blud, as well as another gay dating app controlled by the same company, were removed from all mobile app stores in China based on a request from the country’s cyberspace administrator. Even after months he did not return. What many initially hoped was a temporary isolated decision now appears to be in line with a broader crackdown on gay venues in China. And the longer the platform remains unavailable, the less likely it is that Blued will ever return in a recognizable form to its users.
Blud’s fate mirrors the fate of many tech companies in China. Liu pointed out in his book that Ma Baoli’s number one entrepreneurial idol was Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. Liu also shadowed Ma Baoli when he attended Hupan University, a highly selective two-year entrepreneurial training camp that Jack Ma organized from 2015 to 2021. At the time, Ma Baoli might never have guessed that his statue would soon become the target of the most extensive regulatory crackdown in recent Chinese history. It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are, in China you have to learn to dance gracefully. One mistake can cost you everything.
But for skilled dancers like Jack and Baoli, failure is only a temporary setback. Jack Ma is now reportedly back to manage the daily affairs of Alibaba as it enters the highly consequential AI era. Ma Bawli, who was asked to resign from Blued’s parent company following its disappointing stock market performance and subsequent acquisition, is working on a new social media startup. According to the company’s public WeChat account, it has already completed two rounds of fundraising.
other dancers
Liu’s book details several other detractors, including a former social media content moderator who stepped down because he could not bear the moral weight of conducting censorship; A feminist activist was afraid to return to China after seeing her colleagues arrested one by one; A former Google employee becomes disillusioned with the tech industry and becomes a science-fiction novelist; And a rapper who kept making political music, even if it meant turning down opportunities to become a mainstream star.
For most of this group, it has become difficult to continue dancing in recent years. Beijing has long oscillated between tightly controlling the Internet and allowing relative freedom. But in recent years, there is no doubt that the country is going through a difficult period. As a result, some of Liu’s dancers have left China, while others have retreated from the limelight.
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