China’s internet censors allow one-on-one complaining, but won’t let you gripe in group chat
Everyone knows that China has some of the most sophisticated censorship tools in the world, but the details of how they actually work — what they censor and when — are often not fully understood. A new report by Citizen Lab, a research group studying the web, human rights, and global security, sheds some light on one particularly fruitful target for Chinese censorship: mobile messaging.
Citizen Lab looked at how the Chinese government censors discussion on WeChat, a popular messaging app. WeChat is the fourth biggest messaging service in the world, with more than 768 million active users, but is also deeply embedded in Chinese society, where it’s used not only for chatting, but for tasks like banking, paying bills, booking holidays,…
