Radiohead open a verified account on China's Weibo

Radiohead have opened an account on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service run by Sina.com, and Sina has verified it as theirs. It holds one post so far, made on Friday, which reads testing the weibo¹. The account has close to 49,000 followers, and the post has drawn 3,800 comments and nearly 10,000 reposts. One reply, from a user called Stephan Li, asks the band to come to Shanghai.

The Hollywood Reporter points out that Radiohead have criticised Chinese government policy before and have played concerts for Tibet. In December they used their website to urge fans to press for the release of Liu Xiaobo, who won last year's Nobel Peace Prize, and signed off You know it makes sense¹.

The Reporter doubts a post like that would last on Weibo. Material the Chinese government judges politically sensitive is filtered, calls for more self-rule in Tibet among it, and the operators must delete posts that raise concern. Sina's chief executive, Charles Chao, told Forbes in March that at least 100 staff watch the service round the clock.