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Our early morning report revealed the good news that the Trump Administration is privately assuring U.S. Companies including Apple that WeChat won't be banned in China. However, in general, we can understand why the U.S. Government is against the WeChat App which is a powerful tool for the Chinese Communist Government. Don't take my word for it, take the word of those under China's rule.

Abacus, who works out of Hong Kong, is now under the thumb of Mainland China. They've posted a report, while they still can against the government titled "Chinas WeChat censored thousands of keywords tied to the coronavirus pandemic, Citizen Lab study says."

Many in Hong Kong know the extent of censorship due to researchers from the University of Toronto who cataloged censored keywords from January to May and passed on their findings.

The report by Abacus writer Karen Chiu states that "When the novel coronavirus first struck China, government efforts to control online discussions were mostly focused on domestic politics. But as the pandemic spread across the globe, US-related topics have borne the brunt of WeChats censorship, a new study found.

Between January and May, researchers at the University of Torontos Citizen Lab found that the Chinese app blocked more than 2,000 keywords related to Covid-19.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, early warnings about the virus were censored, as were domestic criticisms of Chinas handling of the outbreak, said the report.

One incident concerned the real estate mogul Ren Zhiqiang, who went missing after he wrote an article slamming the government.

Using the keyword "Ren Zhiqiang" by itself did not trigger any censorship, however when grouped together as "cover up the facts, Ren Zhiqiang" or "Ren, missing," the entire message was blocked.

Months later The story resurfaced in late July with the Chinese Government preparing to prosecute Zhiqiang.

For more on this story read the full Abacus report. Abacus is now owned by the reputable South China Morning News.

WeChat is simply caught up into this political situation because of the Communist Government forcing the issue on them. Not complying would be a death sentence for the company.

On the other hand, U.S. Social Media sites like Twitter use censorship by choice to shut out the U.S President in the hope that he'll lose the election. They can't use the excuse that the government made them censor voices different from their own. In terms of free speech, I wonder what form of censorship is more evil Government or Corporate censorship?

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China's WeChat is forced to adopt Censorship to Appease the Chinese Communist Government - Patently Apple