As China tightens its grip on internet companies, social media platform WeChat has shut down a Bloomberg social media account, accusing it of violating the country’s regulations on online public accounts, according to media reports on Friday.
According to the South China Morning Post, Tencent-owned WeChat received “complaints” about Bloomberg’s “Daybreak” account, which posts global market updates.
The account, which has been active since January 2021, has violated Chinese regulations, according to the Chinese platform.
“All content has been blocked and the account has been suspended,” the message read on the blocked account, along with a link to the regulations issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China.
Last week, the Bloomberg account provided its most recent financial update.
It is still unknown what content caused the account to be closed.
Tencent and Bloomberg did not respond to the news.
Hong Hao, the former head of research at Bocom International Holdings and an outspoken economist, had his public accounts removed from WeChat and the Twitter-like Weibo earlier this year.
Hong stated on Twitter that closing the ‘Daybreak’ account could lead to “the mainland market becoming increasingly misinformed and mispriced.”
With the crackdown on Internet companies, China has tightened mobile app development rules, requiring stricter content and data protection.
“With the rapid development and wider use of mobile apps, new situations and problems continue to emerge, which require (the rules) to be revised and improved to adapt to new developments,” the Cyberspace Administration of China said last month.
China will set up a hierarchical data classification, management, and protection system in the near future.
