First off I want to state that I am a Japanese user of Skritter and I am just bringing this up out of curiosity as I don’t think it will effect me. There has been a lot of talk recently about apps being banned due to political reasons. I was wondering if Skritter is going to be removed. I was thinking it shouldn’t be removed from the non Chinese store due to it being an American company. It wasn’t banned on the Chinese store before. But with some countries now banning Chinese apps do you think China would retaliate by banning Skritter there?
Unlikely, but not impossible. China already makes it pretty hard to connect to apps that are using Google suite products (which we are), so Skritter access in China has always been a little spotty if you’re not on a VPN.
Many of the apps that are being banned on either side of this political battle generally have a strong political stance or political affiliation in terms of the financial backing or those who serve on the board. Our company has neither.
We’re not really alone in this boat. Access to non-Chinese websites behind the Great Firewall can be tricky. When I lived in China and worked at CNN (I was a part-time intern in the Beijing bureau back in 2009), our office internet connection (routed through HK via VPN) was one of the only places that I was able to get to the usual sites I accessed back home. I was a thrifty college student at the time, and the free VPNs were all I had access to. And they hardly ever worked.
Regardless–Skritter will remain committed to focusing on sharing and helping people discover the joys and wonders of both the Chinese and Japanese language and culture, which goes well beyond a single political party or belief.
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