A man walks past an advertisement for WeChat, a social media platform owned by China’s Tencent, at Hong Kong International Airport on Aug. 21, 2017.
A California user sued Tencent, the parent company of Chinese App WeChat, on Aug. 20 for monitoring and vetting users on behalf of the Chinese Communist government.
The Central News Agency reported that U.S.-based nonprofit Citizen Power Initiatives for China (CPIFC) and six California residents filed a joint lawsuit in California’s Silicon Valley, urging a California court to require Tencent to change its practices and pay damages.
“We are trying to use this lawsuit as part of an effort to mitigate the damage, and by doing so, we may be able to do our part to turn the situation around by relying on the rule of law,” said CPIFC founder Yang Jianli in a press release. “
The suit points out that Tencent has strong ties to the Chinese Communist government, which has allowed it to remain competitive without being affected by the market.
The suit asserts, “For those who want regular access to the Chinese-speaking world, there is no satisfactory alternative to WeChat.”
WeChat users in California and others “use WeChat at the expense of speech, privacy, and many other rights,” the suit says.
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