Large Crypto WeChat Official Accounts Banned in China: Bane or Boon?
24.08.2018 | Beijing | Blog on Chinese Blockchain News
A sizeable number of WeChat Official Accounts of popular crypto news outlets with considerable subscriber counts were taken down by WeChat due to customers’ complaints and policy violation.
WeChat became by far the most important messaging application that also offers organisations to create their own “Official Accounts” to build their following and broadcast their content.
Some of the banned accounts are the following:
- Coindaily (每曰币读)
- BitcoinCore
- Huobi (火币)
- Bishijie (币世界)
- Jinse Finance(金色财经)
- Shenlian Finance (深链财经)
- Pang San Ge Dai Ni Chao Bi (胖三哥带你炒币): WeChat ID: eth886
As an example, Coindaily’s account suspension is shown on the left.
When subscribers tried to access their content in the WeChat mobile app, it displays, in a nutshell, an announcement stating that the Official Account was suspended due to user complaints and violations of WeChat’s user policy for their Official Accounts.
The same can be seen for BitcoinCore and several other Official Accounts.
There was a specific reason that WeChat gave for the account suspension of BitcoinCore.
Evidently, some users complained and reported BitcoinCore specifically targeting its logo used as an avatar in WeChat.
It clearly showed the symbol for Bitcoin and just by doing so would violate the user policy of WeChat Official Account.
Huobi, one of the largest China-based cryptocurrency online exchange, also made an official statement that their WeChat Official Accounts were compromised during the same process. However, they were confidently stating also that this would not affect any operations in their online services.
Later, the Beijing Chaoyang District’s Financial and Social Risk Prevention Office (北京市朝阳区金融社会风险防控 工作领导小组办公室) released an official paper on 17.08.2018 stating a widespread ban on the promotion or mentioning of any virtual currency related topic in shopping malls, hotels and office buildings. Citizens are encouraged hereby to report any misconduct. Refer to the source to read the official letter in Chinese.
It is important to note that this regulation only restricts itself to a particular district in Beijing, which lies on the east side of that city. WeChat’s HQ is located well outside that area, in a northwestern district called Haidian.
Further ramifications of this widespread fear of non-compliance with the new regulations include the cancellation of a blockchain related conference in Hangzhou and several more in Beijing. Cancellations of further meetups or conferences might ensue in the coming days or weeks.
Today, the People’s Bank of China, amongst other regulators, published a warning letter on their website, urging the public to be mindful of the promotion of fraudulent financial activities disguised as investment vehicles in cryptocurrencies. Mostly, it turned out to be pyramid schemes that greatly damaged the public security of China. It detailed out the essence of these illegal schemes in an effort to educate the public against falling to fraud. Refer to the source to read the official announcement.
Our opinion on this matter is that the Chinese government and WeChat, in particular, are prosecuting against illegal ICO promotional platforms where there is a tacit propagation of ICO related information. However, we are confident that projects or companies that can demonstrate consistent value-adding technological advancement in the blockchain industry may not be worried to experience the same kind of ban in their marketing efforts in China. The target is only for destabilising ICO promotional activities that the Chinese government deems to be dangerous to its society and financial system.
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Blog Contributor: Xiangyu John Wu
Blog Editor: Meihui
