China restricts smartphone chat apps

China is targeting popular smartphone-based instant messaging services in a month-long campaign to crack down on what the government calls "rumours and infiltration of hostile forces".

The services let users post photos and updates to their friends, or follow the feeds of companies, social groups or celebrities, and more worryingly for the government intellectuals, journalists and activists who comment on politics, law and society. They also post news reports shunned by mainstream media.

Some accounts attract hundreds of thousands of followers.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the crackdown was aimed at people spreading rumours and information related to violence, terrorism and pornography. Public accounts on services including WeChat, run by Tencent Holdings, were among those being targeted.

Tencent and other companies did not answer calls or immediately respond to emailed requests for comment on Beijing's latest move to restrict online freedom of expression.

This year the ruling Communist party created an internet security group led by President Xi Jinping. Observers say authorities are wary of millions of Chinese with internet access getting ideas that might threaten the Communist party's tight control of information.

Xinhua said: "Some people have used [these services] to distribute illegal and harmful information, seriously undermining public interests and order in cyberspace."

"We will firmly fight against infiltration from hostile forces at home and abroad."

It represented China's first major campaign covering mobile phone messaging platforms, said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based internet and mobile research company.

The timing suggested it may be a response to discussions about recent deadly attacks in China's western region of Xinjiang, the US indictment of five Chinese military officers for cyberspying or the continuing government campaign against corruption.

"Anytime we see a tenser environment on fronts like those, there tends to be a corresponding clampdown on various communications tools," Natkin said.

The Chinese government encourages internet use for education and business but operates an extensive monitoring system. Operators of social media are required to enforce censorship rules against material deemed subversive or obscene.

In March WeChat removed at least 40 accounts with content about political, economic and legal issues.

Web-based microblogs, known in Chinese as "weibo", once enjoyed explosive growth in China but have come under increasing restrictions. A new legal interpretation allows the government to jail microbloggers who post false information it deems to be false if it has been reposted 500 times or viewed 5,000 times.

Source http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/28/china-restricts-smartphone-chat-apps