australia morrison loses wechat account election

Australia morrison loses wechat account election registration#

'There's 1.2 million Australians of Chinese descent who overwhelmingly use this service and now can no longer access news and information from their Prime Minister,' he said on Australian radio on Monday. Liberal Senator James Paterson, Chair of Parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, told media the incident was an example of 'censorship' and 'foreign interference'. Reuters wasn't immediately able to reach the company to request comment.

Australia morrison loses wechat account election registration#

The account registration is now linked to a technology company, Fuzhou 985, in Fujian province, Reuters found.

The Scott Morrison account was registered in 2019 using the name of a Chinese citizen in mainland China as its account operator, WeChat records show and a government source confirmed.įeaturing Morrison's photograph, it originally promoted major announcements on the economy or the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, translated into Chinese.īut in January, the account was rebranded 'Australia China New Life', and said it would provide information such about life in Australia, Reuters confirmed by viewing the account. Tencent didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.īoth the Liberals and the main opposition Labor Party set up official WeChat accounts for their leaders through outsourced agencies. 10, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. The prime minister's office has made multiple fruitless requests to WeChat to regain access to the account, most recently on Jan. With a national election due by May, the government would have aimed to use the Morrison account to promote its policies during the Chinese New Year celebrations starting Feb. Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal Party lost access to his official WeChat social media account months ago, politicians said on Monday, issuing claims of censorship, while the still-active account being run by a new Chinese controller now promotes Chinese life in Australia.Īmid growing diplomatic tensions with China, Australia's two major political parties have used the social media platform, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, to communicate with Australian voters of Chinese ethnicity in tightly fought electorates since 2019.