Chinese internet giant Tencent has dismissed accusations on Wednesday made by China’s national broadcaster that its instant messaging service WeChat fosters prostitution in China.
WeChat, which boasts nearly 300 million users, was criticised by China Central Television on Monday for allegedly allowing the widespread advertising of prostitution and unwillingly harming underage users.
“Weixin is a private social network, and users have control of who joins their friend list, who views their information and how others can find them online,” the company said in a statement. Weixin is the Chinese name of WeChat.
The statement added that users could report malicious content and that the company was “making efforts to clean up malicious accounts like pornographic and fraudulent ones to foster a healthy cyberspace.”
Morning Life Reference, a weekday news programme on CCTV, first aired the allegations in an early morning broadcast on Monday, showing children in a military hospital for juvenile computer addicts in Beijing, whose mental health had allegedly worsened due to their exposure to explicit photos in unsolicited WeChat messages from sex workers.
CCTV tested the application in major Chinese cities, finding widespread access to prostitution. An unidentified reporter said he received 42 unsolicited messages offering sex within thirty minutes on one evening at one Shenzhen hotel.