In the lead up to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China this month — a major changing of the guard which will see widespread retirements among aged leaders — the commonwealth ’s censors have been crack down on everything from an unnervingsex doll - sharing companytoeven milquetoast criticismof the government in the medium . Now , popular Chinese social media app WeChat has begin qualify how its substance abuser can use the platform in an crusade to set off its potential use in protests .
PerTechCrunch , ChinaChannelfounder Matthew Brennan find that the app has all of a sudden restrict the power of users to alter their “ avatars , nicknames and taglines ” until the end of October . The determination effectively block one low - level method of protestation sometimes common on social media sites : shift profile to display augury of solidarity with activists .
Eve of the 19th party congress : WeChat suddenly announces users are blocked from changing incarnation , nicknames and taglines till ending of monthpic.twitter.com/QoEMnY1eyF
— Matthew Brennan ( @mbrennanchina)October 17 , 2017
As noted by TechCrunch , WeChat alreadyblocks discussion of politically raw terms , and last year made the decision tonot even notify userswhen their messages are censored . It ’s likely the app as well as others like microblogging website Sina Weibo will step up its efforts to please censors this calendar month . Weibo recentlyhired 1,000 unexampled moderatorsin an effort to crack down on “ adult , illegal and harmful content , ” theHong Kong Free Press cover . Airbnb alsoshuttered listingsin Beijing , where the event is being concur .
[ TechCrunch ]
Update 2025-05-07 : This article has been update to more accurately reflect Matthew Brennan ’s title .
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