It is a social media platform that boasts more than 1.2 billion active users around the world, but while most WeChat users reside in China, the app is extremely popular with the Chinese diaspora in Australia.
Politicians flocked to the app during the 2019 federal election in a bid to engage directly with the more than 1.2 million Chinese-Australian voters.
But exactly what is WeChat? How can it affect elections and why have there been calls for politicians to boycott its use altogether?
The basics
Launched in 2011 and owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, WeChat has grown from a messaging service to an app that allows users to make payments, get the news, network, shop online, order food, and play games with friends. It bills itself as “a lifestyle” for its users.
While Western-owned services like Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China, WeChat is used by virtually everyone in the country for business and communication.
Melbourne-based WeChat researcher, Fan Yang told SBS News that's what makes the app extremely attractive to the Chinese diaspora.
“Chinese migrant communities prefer to use WeChat because their families are on WeChat and it is a means to communicate with their families back in China," she said.
“WeChat is also a place where Chinese migrants can consume new stories, socialise with others, make payments and shop online.”
WeChat and elections
WeChat has become an increasingly important campaign tool for Australian politicians to connect with Chinese-speaking communities.
At the last federal election, candidates created official accounts, which are similar to official pages on Facebook allowing public figures or businesses to connect with its users, as well as distributed videos and articles tailored for the app and held live question and answer sessions in chat groups.
However, during the 2019 federal election campaign, stories of misinformation were widespread.
The Labor Party was so concerned with fake news on the platform, it wrote to Tencent to raise those issues.
False and misleading posts targeted Labor policy on subject matters such as Safe Schools and asylum seekers.
In one example, a post that falsely claimed the Labor Party under Bill Shorten would allow all refugees permanent residency was viewed tens of thousands of times.
A WeChat post featuring false claims about Bill Shorten. Source: SBS News
Experts believe that like Facebook or YouTube, the main driver of misinformation comes down to advertising revenue.
“News is what everyone wants, and news is the genre where user traffic aggregates and where advertising revenue aggregates,” Ms Yang said.
“Also, there are low barriers of entry that allows many media entities and individuals to be a content producer even though they do not have proper journalistic training in a way to attract traffic which can be monetised through advertising opportunities.”
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Daria Impiombato said it is also difficult to identify the scale and source of misinformation.
“WeChat is a hybrid app,” she said.
“It has official accounts that can post on a feed, and they act a little bit like Facebook public pages, but then a lot of the conversation actually happens in private group chats that are really, really difficult to analyse.”
Censorship concerns
The Chinese owned app has also been heavily criticised for surveilling and censoring its users.
Tencent had previously stated that all content that is shared among international users is private.
However, Canadian analytics company, Citizen Lab published a report in 2020, that said users outside the country were also subject to political surveillance, and the content is used to train and build up the system that WeChat uses to censor China-registered users.
In an online briefing with Chinese media in February, Scott Morrison said he was “very disappointed” that he had been “censored” after he lost his official account on the platform, now rebranded to ‘Australian Chinese New Life’.
Scott Morrison said he was “very disappointed” that he had been “censored” after losing his official WeChat account. Source: SBS News
WeChat is, in fact, two apps within one system — Weixin for users in China, and WeChat for everyone else.
Scott Morrison had procured an official account, only available on the Weixin version — which gave him several perks such as allowing him to send unlimited alerts to followers.
Ms Impiombato believes that it is unlikely that he was censored but there is no way of knowing for sure.
“It was owned by a man in China's Fujian Province, because you need to have a Chinese phone number to set up an official account on Weixin and (the fact he never actually owned the account) was always a risk that the prime minister's office was aware of,” she said.
“It could have been that the man just decided that the risk of running that account for a foreign politician was not worth the reward anymore, or it could have been that Tencent was instructed to take down Morrison's account.
“We have no way of knowing and that's part of the problem of using that platform.”
Tencent has previously insisted there was “no evidence of any hacking or third-party intrusion” of the prime minister’s account and that an ownership dispute was behind the rebrand.
Tencent did not respond to questions from SBS News in relation to censorship on the platform but said in a statement: "WeChat prohibits promotional political content (including election-related paid advertising) on the platform.
“We are also committed to providing the best user experience by minimising the dissemination of false news and misinformation.
However, a scan of the platform revealed numerous examples of campaign advertising being posted.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to SBS News' request for comment.
The development also led to some Coalition members calling for a boycott of the app.
Hong Kong-born Liberal MP Gladys Liu, who extensively campaigned on the platform at the last election, and whose Victorian seat of Chisholm includes a high proportion of Chinese Australians – also stated she would no longer use WeChat at this year’s election.
Ms Liu’s official account appears untouched since October 2021.
2022 federal election
Ms Yang, who is monitoring WeChat during this federal election, told SBS News she has seen a massive influx of election-related content since the federal election was called.
“The content is not necessarily just coming from politician accounts, but other official accounts focused on news or business," she said.
She believes politicians should not disengage from WeChat.
“There are 1.2 million Chinese migrants in Australia and 46 per cent of them come from a mainland China background," she said.
“Using WeChat strategically to communicate with Chinese migrant voters will allow those politicians to directly communicate with this significant portion of voters instead of leaving them out.”
Ms Impiombato believes there are better ways to connect with the Chinese diaspora.
“Setting up an official page, and we've seen is, is too problematic, and it runs too many risks," she said.
“Perhaps reaching out to Chinese language media could be a better way of going about it or, finding other ways that do not involve setting up a wasting account in, you know, someone else's name.”
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) told SBS News that it has been working with Tencent.
“(We) have met with them on multiple occasions in the lead up to the 2022 federal election – to better understand the channel and for Tencent to understand the Australian electoral environment, and also to have referral paths available for content that may breach electoral laws," and AEC spokesperson said.
“We do not actively monitor WeChat for disinformation, but can review content that we’re made aware of through complaint, media coverage or enquiry.”
