Will the Chinese Communist Party become social media’s ‘most followed’?
The ruling party has told all 86.6 million of its members to engage with its first foray into social media with a public account launched this month on social media platform WeChat.
Is the Chinese Communist Party about to become China’s ‘most followed’ poster on the internet?
The ruling party has told all 86.6 million of its members to engage with its first foray into social media with a public account launched this month on massively popular mobile social media platform WeChat, which boasts 438 million monthly active users.
The account, called “gong chan dang yuan”, or Communist Party member, is managed by the Organisation Department of the party’s highest organ of power, the Central Committee. The department has told all members of the world’s largest political party to follow the account.
“[The account] is a platform to publicise the party’s policies and disseminate party theory … Party organisations must personally teach members and the public to use it,” said an internal party memo sent by the department.
The WeChat account is only updated on working days and so far it has largely served as a portal for news releases. Most of its message feeds are newspaper articles tinged with heavy government agenda and rhetoric.