Tencent super app WeChat suspends new user registrations until early August for ‘security upgrade’
- WeChat’s suspension comes as Beijing tightens its grip on the internet industry, including how tech companies collect data
- Tencent has become the latest target for China’s overall regulatory tightening of the tech industry
WeChat, the multipurpose super app operated by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, has suspended new user registrations until August so it can conduct a “security upgrade” to comply with “relevant laws and regulations”, following Beijing’s intensified scrutiny of the country’s internet industry.
“We are conducting a security technical upgrade in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and we will temporarily suspend the registration of new personal accounts and official accounts,” the WeChat team said on social media platform Weibo. “The upgrade is expected to be complete in early August, and registration will resume upon completion,” WeChat said in the post.
When contacted for further comment, WeChat and Tencent referred the South China Morning Post to the Weibo statement.
WeChat, known as Weixin in mainland China, has a ubiquitous presence among Chinese internet users, with 1.24 billion monthly active users who use the app to chat, play games, shop, read news, pay for meals, and post their thoughts and pictures for friends to see.
WeChat’s suspension comes as Beijing tightens its grip on the internet industry, including how tech companies collect data. The soon-to-be enacted Personal Information Protection Law, China’s first legislation dedicated to data privacy, will introduce more restrictions on how companies handle personal data. Big Tech platforms, for instance, will each be asked to create an independent oversight body tasked with scrutinising their data privacy practices.