{"id":11907,"date":"2022-06-29T05:53:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T05:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/nft\/wechat-is-banning-accounts-associated-with-nfts\/"},"modified":"2022-06-29T05:53:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T05:53:08","slug":"wechat-is-banning-accounts-associated-with-nfts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/nft\/wechat-is-banning-accounts-associated-with-nfts\/","title":{"rendered":"WeChat is Banning Accounts Associated with NFTs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Popular Chinese social media platform WeChat has updated its terms of use and will now ban accounts that engage in \u201cvirtual currency or digital collection business\u201d \u2014 i.e. NFTs and crypto. Under the app\u2019s illegal operations clause, this type of communication is considered \u201cviolating content.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extent of the ban<\/h2>\n
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WeChat with more than 1.1 billion daily active users in China, has updated its rules: WeChat public accounts which involved in the issuance, trading and financing of crypto and NFTs will be limited function or banned. https:\/\/t.co\/0I9oMrvFTp pic.twitter.com\/mzclYjFZNg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Following China\u2019s outright ban on crypto trading and mining in 2021, many speculated they\u2019d clamp down on NFTs next. They\u2019ve already started by discouraging users from trading or speculating on NFTs, as well as imposing on them to use the Chinese Yuan \u2014 a fiat currency \u2014 when making NFT purchases. With this latest news, yet another problem has been mounted on the still-growing Chinese NFT market and community.<\/p>\n

Due to this new ruling, public WeChat accounts centered around crypto and NFT trading, financing, and even discussion will be subject to a ban and account restrictions once discovered until the offending behaviors are rectified.<\/p>\n

Yes, even discussion. As found in the app\u2019s updated terms of use, behaviors including \u2014 but not limited to \u2014 \u201c[providing] information intermediary and pricing services for [crypto] transactions\u201d may warrant bans for the account\/s involved. Knowing China\u2019s history of surveillance on its citizens \u2014 particularly on the internet \u2014 and WeChat\u2019s messaging services lacking end-to-end encryption, arranging a secondary sale of an NFT could very well see the two parties involved in a lot of trouble, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Why this matters<\/h2>\n

So why is this such a big deal? For the uninitiated, the internet in China is a walled garden of sorts. Among the list of websites banned in China are sites most internet users simply can\u2019t live without. For instance, Google, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, and Wikipedia \u2014 among scores of other sites ranging from DeviantArt (of all things) to the New York Times<\/em> \u2014 are all banned in China. As for Facebook and Twitter, these sites are only accessible to tourists currently staying in Hainan. Although you can <\/em>use a VPN to get around what some call the Great Firewall, typically only expats employ this practice to use the internet as they see fit. For most mainland Chinese nationals, WeChat is enough.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because WeChat isn\u2019t just a messaging app. To a large chunk of its over 1 billion active users, WeChat is <\/em>the internet. Aside from its core functionality as a messaging platform, Tencent\u2019s app is also a social media platform, digital payment platform, and a burgeoning online business platform to boot.<\/p>\n

However, China doubling down on its stance on NFTs may prove to be an interesting story to follow for members of the NFT community in other parts of the world. Can China\u2019s NFT community and market survive if there aren\u2019t any profits to be made? We\u2019ll have to wait and see how the biggest NFT players in the Asian superpower respond to this latest hurdle.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n