Chinese Messenger App WeChat Bans Crypto Media Outlets ๐จ This article is 6 years old...
Chinese Messenger App WeChat Bans Crypto Media Outlets
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Updated: Sep. 9, 2018 at 7:10 pm UTC
Photo by Yiran Ding on Unsplash
WeChat, the Chinese messenger app owned by Tencent, has banned several blockchain and cryptocurrency media accounts.
Jinse, which is supported by Node Capital, and Deepchain, a website backed by multiple token funds, were both affected by the ban, according to China-based finance news outlet Lanjiner.
On Jinse’sย official WeChat account, a post disclosing that the account has been banned reads:
“Due to users’ complaints and after the platform’s examinations, the account is found to violate ‘Temporary Regulations on the Development and Management of Public Information Services for Instant Messaging Tools’ and all contents have been banned. The account has been prohibited for use.”
The same notification can be found on the WeChat account pages for Huobi News, CoinDaily and Deepchain. Although the exact reasoning for the ban is unclear, China’s new regulation could be at fault.
On Aug. 7, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced temporary regulationsย for the development and management of public information services for instant message tools.
According to one rule:
“The users of instant messaging tools serving in public information service activities shall abide by relevant laws and regulations. For instant messaging service users who violate the agreement, the instant messaging service provider shall take measures such as warning, restriction, suspension and closure until the account is closed, meanwhile saving the relevant records and fulfilling the obligation to report to the relevant authority.”
China’s state-run media network, People’s Daily, criticized blockchain and cryptocurrency media outletsย in China, blaming them for market manipulation.
In fact, Jun Du, CEO of Huobi, was named in the criticism as “a classic example” of the problem in China’s blockchain media network. Evidently, China is calling for harsher regulation on blockchain media outlets.
