![]() If they were, then users in China would not be able to see that content. They sent images and documents among the non-China registered accounts to see if they would be picked up by Tencent's censorship algorithm. They ran two different scenarios - one where they communicated entirely among non-China-registered accounts and a second where they communicated with a China-registered account. The research organization drew their conclusions based on an experiment they ran. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.Ĭitizen Lab made it clear, however, that "there is no evidence attributing Tencent's surveillance behaviours enforced on international WeChat users to the direction of the Chinese government." ![]() Last year, Washington launched a national security review into social media app TikTok's 2017 acquisition of Musica.ly. becomes increasingly worried about the flow of data from apps and services owned by Chinese companies. As a publicly listed global company we hold ourselves to the highest standards, and our policies and procedures comply with all laws and regulations in each country in which we operate," a spokesperson for the company said. "With regard to the suggestion that we engage in content surveillance of international users, we can confirm that all content shared among international users of WeChat is private. Tencent told CNBC it had received the report and takes it "seriously", adding that "user privacy and data security are core values" at the company. Companies that run such services often remove or block content that is likely to offend Beijing.īut Citizen Lab, a research center that is part of the University of Toronto, said in a report published Thursday, that "documents and images shared among non-China-registered accounts are subject to content surveillance and are used to build up the database WeChat uses to censor China-registered accounts." Some analysts believe that the Chinese government is concerned about the growing influence of tech firms in the country and also the privacy of its citizens’ data.Surveillance and censorship of social media and messaging platforms in China is commonplace. President Joe Biden revoked and replaced those actions last month.) Donald Trump had signed an order to ban transactions with TikTok and WeChat in the U.S. (In other markets, it’s a different story. In addition to offering a messaging service, Weixin also allows users to make online payments and access a range of financial services. This is the first time WeChat, which operates as a super app in China, has had to take a step of this kind in more than a decade. The crackdown has wiped billions of dollars in market cap for Chinese firms in recent weeks and many high-profile global investors including SoftBank are impacted by it. It’s not immediately clear which law WeChat is citing in its announcement but the move comes amid a broad crackdown on tech firms by Chinese regulators. “Registration services will be restored after the upgrade is complete, which is expected in early August,” said WeChat, which has amassed over 1.2 billion monthly active users in China as of earlier this year. In a social media post, Tencent said it is “upgrading” its security technology to align with all relevant laws and regulations and while this process in underway “registration of new Weixin (WeChat’s Chinese app) personal and official accounts has been temporarily suspended.” Tencent’s WeChat said on Tuesday it is temporarily suspending registration of new users in China as it works to comply with “relevant laws and regulations,” the latest Chinese firm to face regulatory scrutiny in the world’s largest internet market.
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