![]() ![]() In addition, some researchers have suggested that WeChat apps might include spyware, that could be passed stealthily to non-Chinese users via WeChat-loaded smart phones.Īll in all, the truth about WeChat paints an alarming picture of a serious security threat, as well as a sinister way the Chinese Communist Party can monitor its citizens abroad and keep them in ideological line.Īs with TikTok, it’s time to call out WeChat and cut the social media cord. In short, it’s a distinction without a difference. In fact, all user data goes to servers in Hong Kong where, under Hong Kong’s new National Security Legislation, data servers are expected to obey Beijing orders just as they do in on the mainland. WeChat has tried to get around this issue by pointing out that its servers are kept outside mainland China. These days, if authorities want certain data from WeChat, they will get it, including any data originating here in the U.S. Tencent has been i n trouble with the Chinese government before, for being slow to implement its dictates. The information the app collects from its billion-plus users is controlled by its parent company Tencent. Photographer: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Ma ''Pony'' Huateng © 2010 Bloomberg Finance LP the TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing conference in Beijing, China, on Monday, Oct. Ma ''Pony'' Huateng, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent Holdings Ltd., speaks during. Most use WeChat for innocent purposes like staying in touch with friends and family back home, but the fact that the government has access to their location and other personal data via various backdoors allowing third parties to read the messages being sent and received, means Chinese citizen living abroad become a covert spy service for Beijing, whether they want to be or not. Today there are approximately 600,000 WeChat subscribers in Australia, 1.3 million in the UK, and 1.5 million in the United States. That includes Chinese users living in the United States, such as students and visa holders. While the app only edits out content from users with phone numbers from mainland China, its surveillance is far-reaching. Still, censorship is only one of the problems with WeChat. It can take days, even weeks, to become a digital “person,” with a new account-that is, if the government permits reinstatement. It means becoming a digital “non-person”, with access blocked to digital services tied to their accounts, from health QR codes to online subscriptions. WeChat users quickly knew that if they dared to post a single picture of the event-even in a private group chat-they would be subject to a permanent ban.īeing banned from WeChat is no joke. According to MIT Technology Review, like another Chinese social media app, Weibo, WeChat immediately restricted user content that included words like “Beijing,” “bridge,” and “brave” from being searched.
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