• Agence France Presse, Friday, May 21, 2010 1:08 PM

Can you chant via Twitter? We might soon find out as the Dalai Lama on Friday is expected to hold his first chat with Chinese Web users using the microblogging service. The hour-long chat session is expected to be broadcast on the Twitter account of Chinese writer Wang Lixiong -- a longtime critic of Beijing's policies in Tibet. The Dalai Lama himself reportedly joined Twitter earlier this year.

While is Twitter is blocked in China, Chinese users are expected to be able to access the chat with the Dalai Lama, because Twitter allows third-party applications and servers to freely use its data both inside and outside of the country. This, reports Agence France Presse, has made Twitter largely available in China, thus "eliminating the need for the virtual proxy networks often used to circumvent the vast web of government Internet censorship sometimes dubbed the 'Grat Firewall of China," Xiao Qiang, head of the US-based China Digital Times, tells AFP.

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