Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, seen at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Festival on June 24. The influential British alt-rock band has opened an account on China's micro-blogging site Weibo. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Despite having criticized China's human rights record, Radiohead has decided to dip a toe into the country's heavily censored digital realm.

The influential British alt-rock band, led by singer-songwriter Thom Yorke, has opened an account on Chinese social media site Weibo, which has been likened to a rapidly growing, Chinese competitor to Twitter.

The band's Weibo account was verified by Sina.com, the massive entertainment web portal that owns the micro-blogging site.

Wondering about the first message from the Grammy-winning band, which has already attracted more than 40,000 followers? A tentative, simple post: "Testing the weibo."

It seems that China, with its population of more than 1.3 billion, has proven irresistible even for the activist band that has criticized China for its treatment of Tibet and urged fans to back a campaign calling for the release of Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo.

Both fans and officials will undoubtedly be watching closely to see what sort of messages Radiohead will post, given that all entries (as well as any comments) are monitored by the government -- as is all Internet content in China.

Other western celebs who have jumped onto the Weibo bandwagon of late include Tom Cruise, who joined in February (and now has more than 2 million followers), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (more than 1.5 million followers) and singer Sean Kingston, who messaged his 146,000 Weibo fans to thank them for their thoughts as he recovered from his recent watercraft accident.

All three have a long way to go, however, before they're able to catch up to Weibo's equivalent to Lady Gaga -- popular Chinese actress and budding humanitarian Yao Chen, who has more than 9 million followers.