Troubling new information concerning Chinese surveillance of Tibetans and media censorship in Tibet has become available in recent months, this time in connection with the popular mobile messaging app “WeChat.” As reports mount of Tibetans being detained for sharing “politically sensitive” content on their mobile phones via WeChat, concern is growing within the international Tibetan community that WeChat is closely monitored and puts its users in danger.
WeChat is a social networking app that enables users to send text, voice, and “walkie-talkie” style messages to friends in a chat-room environment. It is also a platform for “self-media,” where information visible to public subscribers can be published on user accounts. This feature has become increasingly utilised by independent journalists and activists voicing opinions critical of China’s government.
Hu Jia, an internationally renowned activist. Photo: AFP
WeChat quickly amassed an enormous following in China and Tibet after it became known in the summer of 2013 that the Chinese micro-blogging site Sina Weibo was being closely monitored and censored by Chinese authorities. Many Weibo users, such as Hu Jia, a Chinese environmental and human rights activist, switched to WeChat as a result. Jia states, “[I] assumed WeChat was relatively safe.” However he knew there was a problem with WeChat when Chinese security officers recited voice messages he’d sent in full detail. Jia says, “…conversations will have just finished an hour ago and already they’re interrogating friends about the content.”
Hu Jia’s experience is not unique. On March 14, WeChat began a crackdown on its user base, deleting the public accounts of numerous users critical of the Chinese government. The censorship of mobile communication took a more serious turn on March 15 and again on April 11, when a total of six Tibetans from Sog County in Tibet’s Nagchu Prefecture were arrested for sharing “politically restricted” messages and images on their phones via WeChat.
Tencent, the China-based internet, mobile, and telecommunications giant that owns WeChat, has responded as follows to accusations that it has given Chinese authorities access to its users’ private information: “We have taken user data protection seriously…[but] we comply with relevant laws in the countries where we have operations.”
However protecting user data is more complex than whether or not a company like Tencent grants a government access. As Adam Segal, a cyber-security expert for the American think-tank Council on Foreign Relations points out, “Information technology services are all fundamentally insecure…a directed adversary can figure out vulnerabilities to exploit and gather intelligence.” In short, a company’s consent is by no means necessary to access its users’ data.
A number of pro-Tibet organisations, such as the Tibet Action Institute (TAI), a project of Students for a Free Tibet, have launched awareness campaigns in response to the growing surveillance of Tibetan mobile communications. Modern phones have microphones, cameras, and GPS trackers and internet access which can all be used to collect information. To avoid detection, TAI offers advice to internet and mobile phone users, for example suggesting that to be private it is best to communicate in person, leaving your electronic devices in another room. If it is necessary to send sensitive messages using Wechat, use code words to make them seem mundane.
For more information on how to protect your personal user data, visit TibetAction.net
Print
Email