China Accused Of Interference After Australia PM's WeChat Account Vanishes

Monday, 24 January 2022newsdesk

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's WeChat account has disappeared, prompting accusations of Chinese "interference" from senior members of his government Monday. Morrison's account on the Chinese social media app, which was launched in February 2019, appears to have been replaced with one titled "Australian Chinese new life."

New Delhi, 24 January 2022

As per news report of NDTV, WeChat is the overwhelmingly dominant messaging and social media platform in China, where Western services such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are blocked. There was no immediate comment from Morrison but a senator from his ruling centre-right Liberal Party accused Beijing of being behind the change. "What the Chinese government has done by shutting down the Prime Minister's account is effectively foreign interference in our democracy," James Paterson told 2GB radio on Monday. Paterson called on Australian politicians to boycott WeChat in response. According to the account's about page, the "Australian Chinese new life" name was registered on October 28, 2021. But the account has posts dating back to February 1, 2019, including Morrison's first, which reads: "I'm very happy to open my official WeChat account".

Source - NDTV