Image Credits: Twitter ranking in the China App Store / Screenshot from Sensor Tower The app has, however, remained available for download in the Apple App Store, at least since February 2019, according to Apple Censorship, an independent project that tracks censorship in the App Store. Accessing the app in China requires the use of a censorship circumvention tool or a virtual private network. The spike in Twitter downloads is intriguing since the app has long been blocked by China’s “Great Firewall”. As a result, people are pouring onto foreign alternatives like Twitter to disseminate information and Telegram to organize demonstrations. Discussion about the protests, a rare act of defiance that has swept across major Chinese cities and universities since the past weekend, is closely monitored by censors and has been largely silenced on local social media. The social media app ranked 9th amongst all the free iOS apps in China on November 29, up from 150th a week ago, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

Twitter saw a surge in downloads in China as protests against the country’s stringent COVID restrictions erupted nationwide over the last few days.

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