Image: AFP/Peter Parks
Multiple social media accounts belonging to major university LGBTQ rights groups in China have been blocked from the popular WeChat app, prompting fears of targeted censorship and calls Wednesday for an online protest.
The WeChat pages of groups, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology Gay Pride and Peking University’s ColorsWorld, had their past posts scrubbed and replaced with a notice stating: “all content has been blocked and the use of the account has been stopped” for violations of unspecified social media regulations.
The brief notices said WeChat had received “complaints” about the pages, while the groups’ account names had been changed to “Unnamed Account” on Tuesday, based on publicly visible account records.
Super-app WeChat is China’s biggest social media platform, with instant messaging, blogs and other content, as well as the ability to make payments.
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Chinese social media firms frequently censor content deemed to be politically sensitive or inappropriate, with censors previously targeting LGBTQ-related content on video streaming apps and foreign films.
Zhihe Society, a feminist student group at Shanghai’s Fudan University focusing on sexual minorities, confirmed its WeChat official account had been permanently deleted in a statement on another social media platform on Wednesday.
