Chinese social platform Wechat is cracking down on LGBTIQ+ accounts run by university students

Chinese tech giant Wechat has deleted dozens of accounts belonging to Queer university students. The platform says the accounts”violated regulations on the management of accounts offering public information service on the Chinese internet”.

Reuters reports that several LGBTIQ+ students lost access to their accounts. They later found that the site had deleted all their content. One affected user told Reuters that the shutdown has caused massive suffering for the LGBTIQ+ community.

“They censored us without any warning. All of us have been wiped out,” they said.

China’s crackdown on LGBTIQ+ content

Although homosexuality is legal in China, the country doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage. It was classified as a ‘mental disorder’ in the country until 2001.

This comes after a court upheld a university’s description of homosexuality as a “psychological disorder” early this year.

The Cyberspace Administration of China recently pledged to ‘clean up the internet’. The aim of the move is to ‘protect minors’ from groups deemed a ‘bad influence’.

Weibo and Zhihu also have removed queer content

This comes after another Chinese social media company Weibo removed Lesbian content. The community board platform Zhihu also recently has censored discussions about gender identity.

Last year, China indefinitely cancelled the country’s only pride festival over ‘staff safety’ concerns.