Citizen Lab Researcher Lotus Ruan was interviewed by VOA Mandarin on the recent release of the report entitled “One App Two Systems, How WeChat uses one censorship policy in China and another internationally,” in which researchers found that keyword filtering is enabled on WeChat for users with accounts registered to mainland China phone numbers.
They noted that filtering remains enabled even if users later link their account with a non-mainland China number, which means that users with accounts registered to mainland China will remain under censorship regardless if they travel or unlink their Chinese phone number from the account.
Lotus Ruan spoke about domestic Chinese and international censorship, the recent shutdown of WeChat groups, and the company’s globalization move. The interview is in Mandarin, and can be watched in full.