In a fresh crackdown against homosexuality in China, WeChat, a popular social media platform owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, has deleted more than a dozen LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) accounts, run by university students.
The members of several LGBT groups lost access to their accounts late Tuesday. Following the abrupt closure, several students shared screenshots, to which WeChat replied that the accounts were blocked “after receiving relevant complaints”. “All content has been blocked and the account has been put out of service,” it also stated in the notice. The company also cited a violation of government regulation on the management of online public accounts.
“Many of us suffered at the same time,” news agency Reuters quoted an account manager of one group as saying. However, people quoted in the Reuters story declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
“They censored us without any warning. All of us have been wiped out,” the account manager also said.
Many LGBT rights supporters also took to social media to protest against the closure of students’ accounts. “The era is regressing. China wasn’t like this 10 years ago. Gradually we’re losing all our freedoms,” said a user on Weibo, as per ANI report.
However, some online nationalists have welcomed the move, who claimed that they are run by “anti-China forces.” “I support the blocking of the accounts…why should we keep these public accounts run by anti-China forces in our higher education institutions? Are we waiting for them to brainwash university students who have yet to form their values?” ANI quoted one user as saying.
In 1997, China decriminalised homecuality, but not until 2001, the government classified it as a “mental disorder.”
However, in a controversial ruling in March this year, a Chinese court upheld a university’s description of homosexuality as a “psychological disorder” and said that it was not a factual error but merely an “academic view”.
The Cyberspace Administration of China recently pledged to clean up the internet to protect minors and crackdown on social media groups deemed a “bad influence”.
Traditionally, LGBT student groups do not get the support of university authorities in their work to raise awareness about the community, despite the decriminalisation.
In May, the loyalty of LGBT university groups to the government and the Communist Party was discussed between student groups, university representatives of the Communist Youth League – a department in charge of student affairs run by the Chinese Communist Party, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter, Reuters had reported.
During the meeting, the students were asked if they were anti-Party or anti-China, and whether any of their funds had originated from abroad, it also reported.
(With agency inputs)
