In July, several LGBT+ groups told Reuters they had been locked out of their WeChat accounts and said they had been “censored without any warning”. China’s biggest social media platform has been ‘wiping out’ LGBT+ accountsĮarlier this year, it was reported that WeChat, which like QQ is also owned by Tencent, had been “wiping out” LGBT+ accounts, prompting fears that the move was part of a wider crackdown.
PinkNews has approached Tencent for comment. A source told CNN that the volunteer-led team at Shanghai Pride cancelled the event following pressure from local authorities.
The country’s longest-running LGBT+ celebration, Shanghai Pride, was cancelled abruptly last year. The country does not recognise same-sex marriage, there are no legal protections in place that protect LGBT+ Chinese people from discrimination and LGBT+ people continue to face huge social stigma. It now claims there are “no results found”.īeing gay was decriminalised in China in 1997, but it was not declassified as a psychiatric disorder until 2001. The company failed to give an explanation as to why the LGBT+ words had been banned, but after the news went public, the message was swiftly changed. This is the same message that appears when users try to search for explicit content.
