Brief: WeChat, Weibo, and Baidu caught in Chinese government cybersecurity probe

Photo credit: Copyright: tangducminh / 123RF Stock Photo.

The news (extracted from Reuters):

• China’s Cyberspace Administration says it is investigating Tencent’s messaging app WeChat, microblogging site Weibo, and Baidu’s Tieba forum over suspected violations of the country’s strict cybersecurity laws.
• The regulator says the tech companies are failing to comply with laws that ban content which is violent, obscene, or deemed offensive to the ruling Communist Party.
• “Users [of the accused services] are spreading violence, terror, false rumors, pornography, and other hazards to national security, public safety, [and] social order,” the regulator said on its website.

Why it matters:

• China’s government has signalled lately that it will pursue increasingly heavy-handed regulation of social media platforms. This action comes in the wake of events deemed as politically sensitive by Chinese authorities, including the death of human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s transition from British to Chinese rule, and the Communist Party’s upcoming 19th National Congress.
• In June, regulators ordered Weibo to cease all audio and video streaming, a move which knocked over US$1 billion off the company’s market cap. Last month, reports emerged indicating that Chinese censors were blocking content on Facebook-owned WhatsApp.