China cracks down on smartphone instant messaging

China is targeting popular smartphone-based instant messaging services in a month-long campaign to crack down on the spreading of rumours and “infiltration of hostile forces” in the latest move restricting online freedom of expression.

President Xi Jinpings party is watching smartphone services. Picture: AP

Such services incorporate social media functions that allow users to 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.

Some accounts attract hundreds of thousands of followers.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the crackdown on people spreading rumours and information related to violence, terrorism and pornography would target public accounts on services including WeChat, run by Tencent Holdings Ltd, which has surged in popularity in the past two years.

People can subscribe to feeds from public accounts without first exchanging greeting messages, as must be done with private ones, which typically link friends and acquaintances.

Tencent and other companies did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, the ruling Communist Party announced the creation of 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 system.

Noting that such services had become popular online communication channels, Xinhua said: “Some people have used them to distribute illegal and harmful information, seriously undermining public interests and order in cyberspace.”

The cabinet’s internet information office said: “We will firmly fight against infiltration from hostile forces at home and abroad.”

The move is 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 of the crackdown suggests 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.

“Any time we see a tenser environment on fronts like those, there tends to be a corresponding clampdown on various communications tools,” he said.