Twitter in China? In due time, Twitter founder promises

16.03.2010
During a New York panel discussion on social media and digital activism held Monday, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei secured a promise from Twitter creator Jack Dorsey that his company will offer a Chinese version of its social networking service.

Though Dorsey quickly qualified his response by noting that it may be some time yet before the service will be available for the country, due to technical and legal hurdles.

The exchange took place at the Paley Center in New York, in a session sponsored by the ReadWriteWeb Web 2.0 news site.

"Is it possible to provide a Chinese access on Twitter?" asked Dorsey. "I need a clear answer, yes or no."

"I would say yes. It's just a matter of time," responded Dorsey, who participated by teleconference.

Ai called Dorsey's answer "very philosophical," and sighed, "I don't like to hear that."