From Channel News Asia

BEIJING: Multiple social media accounts belonging to major university lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights groups in China have been blocked from the popular WeChat app, prompting fears of targeted censorship and calls on Wednesday (Jul 7) for an online protest.

The WeChat pages of groups, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology Gay Pride and Peking University's ColorsWorld, had their past posts scrubbed and replaced with a notice stating: "All content has been blocked and the use of the account has been stopped" for violations of unspecified social media regulations.

The brief notices said that WeChat had received "complaints" about the pages, while the groups' account names had been changed to "unnamed account" on Tuesday, based on publicly visible account records.

Super-app WeChat is China's biggest social media platform, with instant messaging, blogs and other content, as well as the ability to make payments.

Chinese social media firms frequently censor content deemed to be politically sensitive or inappropriate, with censors previously targeting LGBT-related content on video streaming apps and in foreign films.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/lgbt-rights-groups-blocked-china-biggest-social-media-app-wechat-15172100

Winnie needs "others" to repress in order to try and keep his grip on the country.

 

It's also interesting the CNA is reporting on this given Singapore's poor record in the GLBT rights arena

Chinese groups falling foul of the censors for whatever reason no longer have to depend on this one app. There seems to be no news about similar blocking on the other mega social networking site weibo which has half a billion users in China. Besides, new apps spring up with unsurprisingly regularity given the size of the country.  Here is info on a dozen.

https://nealschaffer.com/top-12-new-social-media-china/

My take on this after talking with a friend in Shanghai is that the government is seeking to rein in Tencent, the owner of WeChat, only partly because this app has many members outside China. Tencent had a market value of US$500 billion in 2018. It has purchased major holdings in more than 30 worldwide companies. Its tentacles cover technology, entertainment, gaming, medicine, on-line payments etc. The recent action follows Tencent's blocking of TikTok videos. IN 2019 the government ordered Tencent to improve the rules of WeChat. This is perhaps somewhat similar to its recent reining in of another mega company, Alibaba.

Why the LGBT community should have been specifically targeted is worrisome but my friend says he has seen no other recent action of the government against the community.