As Chinese companies grow into markets beyond China, their activities are also coming under scrutiny. Tencent’s responses to data access requests failed to clarify how data from international users is used to enable political censorship of the platform in China.Ī significant body of research over the past decade has shown how online platforms in China are routinely censored to comply with government regulations.From public information, it is unclear how Tencent uses non-Chinese-registered users’ data to enable content blocking or which policy rationale permits the sharing of data used for blocking between international and China regions of WeChat.Upon analysis, files deemed politically sensitive are used to invisibly train and build up WeChat’s Chinese political censorship system.
Documents and images transmitted entirely among non-China-registered accounts undergo content surveillance wherein these files are analyzed for content that is politically sensitive in China.We present results from technical experiments which reveal that WeChat communications conducted entirely among non-China-registered accounts are subject to pervasive content surveillance that was previously thought to be exclusively reserved for China-registered accounts.Have questions about this report? Read our WeChat guide that provides a summary of research findings as well as questions and answers from the research team.
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