China’s Social media giant WeChat has revealed new regulations in which it demanded a ban on promoting money-making, high-yield financial fraud schemes, including cryptocurrencies. According to the report shared by journalist Colin Wu, the social media platform noted,
“In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers, and prevent and control the legal risks of financial marketing activities, in accordance with the “People’s Bank of China’s implementation Measure for the Protection of Financial Consumers’ Rights and Interests,” the “Notice on Further Regulation Financial Marketing and Publicity” and other relevant regulations, the following are formations:”
The notice mentioned four financial management rules for illegal market content, namely,
- Prohibition of fraudulent financial market promotion: This rule discouraged high-yield wealth management content like promoting abnormal high-return wealth management products.
- Prohibition of false financial marketing: This noted that the content published by the official WeChat account should not express or imply the future effects and benefits of financial products or services or make a guaranteed commitment to the relevant situation unless stipulated by the state.
- Prohibition of misleading financial marketing: The content published on the WeChat official account, including the review or filing procedure of financial products or services by the financial management department of the State council or local financial supervision departments, shall not be used as a publicity stunt to mislead consumers into thinking that the government guarantees the service or products.
- It is forbidden to conduct financial marketing without qualifications: Finally, if an official account on the platform contains keywords related to financial business or services, the applicant should have appropriate financial publicity qualifications and provide materials that can prove legal business qualifications like the business licenses, filing, documents, industry self-regulatory organization qualifications, and other necessary documents.
While this was the regulation due to the growing cryptocurrency encroachment in people’s portfolios, WeChat has been a tool used by the government for heavy surveillance. A new report from Bloomberg highlighted the state of the citizens complaining about the lack of privacy on Chinese apps like WeChat, which has a different police version.
From communicating with your social circle to staying in touch with the world around, WeChat helped its citizens bridge the gap between Chinese citizens and the rest of the world. However, as the Chinese government began cracking down on illicit activities and tracking citizens, it became a tool for surveillance. This was visible when it banned all crypto services and content from the platform following China‘s ban on virtual currencies.
Earlier, it also flagged a list of NFT accounts, and WeChat banned several accounts promoting and engaging in the trade of non-fungible tokens. At the time, WeChat noted that the operators would be required to provide proof of cooperation with a blockchain company recognized by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Skip to the current situation; nothing has changed but is structured to keep netizens away from cryptocurrencies.