- Organisations said they fear targeted censorship and called for online protests
- Tencent, which owns the messaging app, has yet to comment on the account removals
Some LGBTQ+ WeChat accounts in China were recently deleted, and the company has yet to state why.Multiple social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ rights groups at major universities in China have been blocked from WeChat, prompting fears of targeted censorship and calls for an online protest on Wednesday.
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 “relevant complaints” about the pages, while the groups’ account names had been changed to “Unnamed Account” on Tuesday, based on publicly visible account records.
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Chinese social media platforms frequently censor content deemed to be politically sensitive or inappropriate, with censors previously targeting LGBTQ+ related content on video streaming apps and in 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.
“It’s very clear that there’s no possibility that Zhihe’s original account can be revived in the short term,” the organisation said in a statement on Weibo, without giving details of the reason for the takedown.
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Although China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, same-sex marriage is illegal and issues around LGBTQ+ groups are often sensitive.
Tencent, which owns WeChat, did not immediately respond to AFP’s query on what prompted the account removals.
Multiple WeChat users not affected by the block circulated lists of deleted accounts and called for a digital protest against the deletions, asking readers to change their profile names to “Unnamed account.”
Many of these posts were deleted by midday on Wednesday.