The Chinese authorities have continued to tighten the loopholes with regards to where the country’s citizens can access cryptocurrencies as well as any information with regards to trading and/or mining them. Back in mid August, the government through the Cyberspace Administration of China in collaboration with Tencent – the creator and owner of WeChat – issued a statement on the matter. The major reason for cracking down on crypto related activities and accounts on the messaging platform, was that it was in tandem with the government’s orders to ban crypto trading and all ICO activities in the country that might harm the financial well being of its citizens.
VPNs and Moving Crypto Exchanges To Foreign Jurisdictions
Crypto exchanges and traders in the country have since found other ways to circumvent the continual scrutiny and restricted internet access to foreign based crypto exchanges. One method local exchanges have used, is to transfer their business operations outside the reach of the Chinese borders and jurisdictions. On the other hand, individual crypto traders have been using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to access foreign exchanges that have been banned by the government.
WeChat Accused of Sharing User Personal Data with Authorities
WeChat, has been accused of sharing user personal data with authorities as part of Tencent’s efforts to abide by the new directives by the government banning crypto and ICO related activities. The new privacy policy of the messaging app states that:
We share your information with selected recipients who have a legal basis and valid jurisdiction to request such data. These categories of recipients include:
government, public, regulatory, judicial and law enforcement bodies or authorities: where we are required to comply with applicable laws or regulation, a court order, subpoena or other legal process, or otherwise have a legal basis to respond to a request for data from such bodies, and the requesting entity has valid jurisdiction to obtain your personal information;
Censoring Bitmain and Crypto Price Prediction Accounts
It is with this background that the messaging app has been noted to having censored the accounts belonging to the Bitcoin mining giant known as Bitmain. As of Monday, 10th September, its official account was blocked on the messaging app.
In addition to Bitmain, a total of 30 other accounts related to crypto activities have been blocked by the messaging giant. This is according to a report recently published by CoinDesk.com.
[Photo courtesy androidauthority.com]
