A few hours after Melbourne resident Winson Ng offered his opinion in his own 300-member WeChat group about the August , he discovered that his account had been blocked.
In a notice received from administrators of the app, he was notified that his account “violated the user agreement and has been blocked from login”.
He was advised to send a request to restore his account after eight days.
The debate which led to his barring, Winson recalls, began when a group member offered an opinion that Lai had plotted against China with the help of US agents.
Winson's WeChat account was blocked from login. Source: Winson Ng
Winson told SBS Mandarin that when other group members asked to verify this claim, he offered his own opinion that the media mogul had not done such a thing.
Lai, 72, was among seven arrested in an operation focused on his Next Media publishing group, the latest to target dissidents since Beijing imposed the new national security law in Hong Kong at the end of June.
He is the founder of the popular newspaper Apple Daily and Next Weekly, which regularly criticises Beijing while spruiking a pro-democracy stance. He was later released on bail on August 11.
Lai was arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law. Source: AP
'I will not silence different voices'
Winson immigrated to Australia from Malaysia to continue his studies and decided to stay and begin his career as an immigration agent.
He has been a WeChat user for seven years as it helps him connect with students from mainland China.
He said the debate is a norm among members of his group, ‘Chinese-Australian-in-Melbourne’, which presents conflicting views, yet he affirms that he's never blocked anyone from posting.
“I will not silence different voices,” Winson said.
“In my opinion, many debates happen because people are obtaining information via very different channels.”
Winson's personal WeChat account has since been restored, but he said he's seriously considering reducing his usage and reliance on the platform.
Melbourne resident Winson Ng's WeChat account was blocked from login. Source: Winson Ng
“I use it in Australia to communicate with other people in Australia. If this freedom can still be violated, should we explore whether we need prevention measures?”
Winson's experiences are all too familiar for WeChat users residing outside of mainland China who have their accounts suspended due to censorship carried out by the platform administrators.
Melbourne artist and prominent democracy activist Badiucao believes that censorship is just part of using the platform.
“Topics, or sometimes only the words or pictures, that the Chinese government does not like, will be banned from the platform, and will also result in the suspension of your account [if you post them],” he told SBS Mandarin.
"Regardless of whether you are using WeChat in mainland China or overseas, whether you are using the Chinese version (Weixin) or the international version (WeChat), censorship is always there.”
The longtime human rights activist, who spent much of his years of advocacy anonymous, decided to reveal his identity in a .
Chinese cartoonist Badiucao standing behind his artwork titled 'Light' in his studio in Melbourne. Source: Getty
He said "abandoning WeChat became a matter of life and death".
"If my identity is leaked, it will bring a lot of troubles and threats to myself and my family. This threat actually comes from the Chinese government."
However, he understands the importance of WeChat to overseas-based Chinese users.
“For ordinary people who think they may not engage with political topics every time, the risk of their accounts being suspended is low.
“Or even if it does happen once or twice, it won’t affect their normal life."
Melbourne resident Susan Wang* is a self-confessed “hardcore” WeChat user.
She uses it to connect with family members back in China, to participate in group purchases of Asian groceries, and to receive information and news updates, especially during the COVID-19 crisis in Victoria.
“WeChat has fulfilled every single daily need of mine, including getting the news and connecting with friends. And now I can even buy food on WeChat during the pandemic and have them delivered, without leaving home.”
She affirms that she's not too concerned about censorship on the platform.
“Other social media, like Facebook and Twitter, seem to have that as well. I don’t have any special feelings [about censorship on WeChat]. I’m just an ordinary person."
Banning WeChat in Australia
In early August, the Trump administration stepped up efforts to discontinue TikTok and WeChat in the United States by
Some US-based users are as a result.
Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said Australia would not follow the US in banning the platforms.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. Source: AAP
During an August 7 press conference, Minister Tudge said:
"So I know that over 800,000 people in Australia use WeChat, and it has been an important tool for many people.
“I know that even the communities, which I'm a part of, which have a high Australian-Chinese population, I've got a WeChat account.”
In 2018, the Australian Defence Department
Badiucao believes there might be a better option than the “sudden death” of the platform which is the path used by the US government.
"By doing this, the US is sending a very important signal to the world.
“I think WeChat is a potential threat to Australian society in principle. It brings great obstacles and poses threats. Thus, in principle, I support the blocking of WeChat.”
In his observations, WeChat has served its users as news agents or information channels, which have "a very significant influence on the trend of public opinion and social value in [Australian] society".
A man looks at the copies of the Badiucao's political artworks which are displayed at a bookstore in Hong Kong in November 2018. Source: AP
“There’s nothing wrong about speaking Chinese or reading in Chinese.
“However, the problem is WeChat and the public accounts on them have become the one and the only channel for its users, the channel that is controlled and influenced by the Chinese government, if not in many cases an extension of Chinese political propaganda."
Associate Professor Haiqing Yu from the School of Communication at RMIT University in Melbourne has completed in-depth research on the news offerings for Chinese migrants in Australia.
She believes that the sources of information that the public usually connects with are affecting political views and ways of thinking.
“[Many of them] get information through WeChat for a long time, and some have satellite TV installed in their homes, and they only watch TV programs from China.
“Their way of thinking remains the same after immigration. Their views are also dominated by information sources from China.”
Dr Yu adds: “These Chinese information platforms will definitely affect the political attitudes held by some overseas Chinese. However, I think the generalisation is wrong and I’m against it.”
She believes that migrants from mainland China can obtain information through various media channels in Chinese and English, and they are doing so.
"I browse Facebook every day, listen to ABC News, and read the New York Times and Financial Times. I don't think my political views have been influenced by Chinese information platforms such as WeChat."
Melbourne resident, Bingqing Yang, believes that since WeChat has become “indispensable” in the lives of its users, they are "trapped in an information vortex”, which means that no matter where they live in the world, they still live under the same sets of narrative and the systems of mainland China.
Bing is the creator of a WeChat group, which unlike other chatting groups, is a community that provides fact-checking for Chinese Australians.
She observed that fact-checking centres were common in various countries but pointed out that there is no easy way for Chinese readers in Australia to verify the authenticity of the information.
“Every day, members post news to the group," Bing said, "because they are doubtful and want to verify the news".
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The need for fact-checking
Bing said false news is a problem on the platform and a common method used by those creating and disseminating it is to deliberately filter information of English news reports, and reassemble the information using exaggerated language.
One example is an article posted by public account Sydney Today with the title ‘NEW Infectious Diseases Emerging in Australia! Similar Symptoms to Coronavirus with Many Confirmed Cases! Ministry of Health warns! Mystery Virus Spreading in Australia!.
Bing said: "This article is a mixture of two English reports. One is the The other is the .
“The two reports were originally unrelated, but they have been combined into one, which gives the audience the impression that there is a new epidemic in Australia," Bing said.
This article, which has gathered more than 100,000 views, also appeared in Susan Wang’s WeChat moments feed.
How to fulfill the demand for information in Chinese?
Although Badiucao and Bing hold different opinions on whether WeChat should be banned in Australia, they are both concerned about the same problem - how to fulfill the demand of information in Chinese for Australians?
“Banning or prohibition of WeChat or TikTok is only part of the way I want to deal with it,” Badiucao said.
“The Australian government and other organisations should support local Chinese channels that can represent the Chinese community, like ABC Chinese or SBS Mandarin.
“In fact, we can fill in the gap after the banning of WeChat by leveraging the existing Chinese media and developing new ones.”
Bing believes that Australia should not restrict the use of WeChat, and instead help with the improvement of information quality by collaborating with Tencent, WeChat’s parent company.
"WeChat public accounts provide a lot of local information to some Chinese who have difficulty reading English.
“If WeChat is restricted and there are no alternative means, these people will lose the channel to receive local information.
"We should urge WeChat to remove the censorship in overseas markets so that it meets Australia's requirements for press freedom and public discussion."
, while WeChat was not included.
The Senate’s Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media is currently examining the use of social media for the purposes of undermining Australian democracy and values, including through misinformation.
*Name has been changed.
