China restricts activists’ social media ahead of Olympics

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Human rights activists and some academics in China have had their WeChat messaging app accounts restricted in recent weeks, multiple people affected have told Agence France-Presse, as Beijing cracks down on dissent before the Winter Olympics.

China hopes to make next week's Games a soft power triumph, although the lead-up has seen some Western powers launch a diplomatic boycott over Beijing's rights record and cybersecurity firms warn athletes of digital surveillance risks.

"This storm of shuttering WeChat accounts is too strong and unprecedented," said veteran journalist Gao Yu, whose account had features like group chat messaging permanently disabled for the first time on December 20. "The government now wants to make sure that people don't cross the line online to poke the facade of a perfect Winter Olympic Games," said Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.Tencent's app WeChat is a mainstay of daily life in China, with users relying on it for a range of services including payments and scanning health codes that permit entry to public venues.

"Isn't this equal to removing an individual from a public space?" said Zhang, adding she can now only send WeChat messages to individual users.

 

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