WeChat joins Weibo to display location when users post on public accounts, as it complies with efforts to censor rumours and content deemed harmful
- The measure is to maintain ‘internet order and crack down on rumours’, WeChat said
- China’s most popular online platforms have all implemented the location display functions, covering well over a billion internet users
WeChat, China’s most popular app with over 1.2 billion users, will start displaying user locations when a person publishes content on public accounts, making it the latest Chinese social media platform to sign up to tightened censorship following a similar move by Weibo.
“Recently, some national and world news has attracted a massive amount of attention,” the platform said in an announcement on Friday. “We notice some users pretend to be people familiar with the matter, fabricate and spread disinformation online, which has caused a harmful effect in the internet space.”
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The measure is to maintain “internet order and crack down on rumours”, WeChat said. The platform will display the province or municipality where users are posting from, and the country of the user’s IP address will be displayed if they live abroad. On Thursday, Twitter-like social media platform Weibo imposed similar measures.
WeChat’s move means that China’s most popular online platforms have all implemented the location display functions, which cover well over a billion internet users in the country and many overseas.
Over the past year, China has stepped up efforts to “clean up” the internet, and platforms that fail to censor “improper” speech have been repeatedly fined and punished by regulators.
However, the government’s attempt at keeping a lid on posts by China’s netizens has been tested by the recent Covid-19 outbreak in the country, which has seen public discontent and anger boil over amid strict lockdowns, especially in Shanghai.
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“China’s internet management must be in place, otherwise the internet will transform the country politically,” Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, wrote on Weibo the same day without naming the video.