Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lost control of his account on Chinese social media platform WeChat. A private company now appears to have assumed the running of the account and has renamed it ‘Australia New Life’. The incident highlights the unusual terms and conditions of WeChat, where ‘official’ accounts must be registered by a Chinese individual or business before they can be used by a Western entity. Companies looking to use WeChat as a channel to reach the Chinese market must take note of the potential risks involved.
On Monday, Australian Senator James Paterson released a statement claiming that Morrison has been blocked from WeChat after making controversial comments on the platform concerning the Chinese Government.
It now appears that the account has not actually been blocked, but has been bought by a Chinese company called Fuzhou 985 Information Technology, an IT company based in Fujian province, and renamed “Australia New Life”. It is now being used to publicise relevant information for Chinese nationals living in Australia.
Morrison’s account has 75,000 followers and features all of his historic posts. Huang Aipeng, the legal spokesperson for Fuzhou 985 Information Technology, said in a statement to the Chinese news outlet SBS that the account “was transferred from the person in charge of the original official account” in what he said is “purely legal behaviour”. He went on to clarify that “the account is legal, the content is legal and the price is reasonable. I don’t pay attention to the rest”.
