Like any tech company in China, Tencent is at the behest of the Chinese government. Much like Bytedance, owner of TikTok. They often must follow guidelines and rules that may never become official law, but are edicts passed down from the government. It’s therefore hard to say if TikTok’s anti-LGBTQ+ stances came from the Chinese government, or within the company. The same is true of Tencent’s WeChat. WeChat, perhaps the most important social networking app in China, has deleted LGBTQ+ accounts, blaming an unspecified law.
Calling WeChat a social network belittles its importance. In the U.S., things like Facebook and Twitter are just parts of your daily life. Little glimpses into the world around you. In China, WeChat is a hub for your entire digital life. Sure, there’s posting, direct communication with people and groups, but there are also other features, like mobile payments. In much the same way companies all over the U.S. accept PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, Chinese retailers accept WeChat as payment. Imagine every social network and messaging app, combined with a digital wallet. That’s how significant WeChat is in China.
Banning LGBTQ+ content on WeChat is like banning LGBTQ+ people in the country.
Deleted LGBTQ+ Groups
Without warning, and without giving an explanation or reason, WeChat removed over a dozen LGBTQ+ groups. WeChat claimed the accounts violated a government regulation for online accounts, but couldn’t specify what was wrong. It seems as though an unwritten rule is seemingly keeping LGBTQ+ groups off WeChat.
A key commonality between all of the removed groups is where the groups were. Not necessarily a specific location, but universities. All of the groups were student-ran groups at universities. Some were unofficial, with no real affiliation with the school. Others were official, sanctioned groups at universities, with the support of the school. Still, WeChat removed both types alike, suggesting it isn’t an issue with falsely claiming affiliation with a school. The only thing they really had in common were that they were safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students. Now they’re gone.
China Blocks LGBTQ+ Content Everywhere
There’s an attitude in China that LGBTQ+ people are the result of external forces. However, we largely censor our media for China. Disney, for example, has blocked LGBTQ-focused plot lines, allowing any “representation” to fade in the background, easy to censor for China and other homophobic nations. LGBTQ+ people are natural. No one nation has a monopoly on homosexuality. Trust me, if there was one, I’d have my damn bags packed. Being queer is just part of the human condition. As long as humans have lived in China, there have been Chinese gays.
China’s influence doesn’t just hurt their own LGBTQ+ citizens. It’s causing harm around the world. Because media companies censor their media, other countries that don’t have homophobic laws lack representation. Companies cut large LGBTQ+ characters and plot lines so they can easily be censored out of China and other homophobic markets.
Representation isn’t just nice for LGBTQ+ people. It helps straight and cisgender people empathize with queer stories and queer people. It helps them see the humanity in their fellow man, regardless of sexuality or gender identity. But companies are cutting out that representation, largely for the overwhelmingly large Chinese market for films. Beyond accidental censorship, like Microsoft hiding search results for “Tank Man” and TikTok defaulting their settings to hide posts from LGBTQ+ people, this censorship hurts representation everywhere. China’s influence on LGBTQ+ people around the world is a negative one.
Things are only getting worse for China’s LGBTQ+ citizens.
Sources:
- Ian Carlos Campbell, The Verge
- Nectar Gan, CNN Business
- Ivan Mehta, The Next Web
- Pak Yiu, Reuters