The Central Bank of China has been on a crackdown quest against cryptocurrency in recent years, something the China People’s Bank considers a huge success. The reason that prompt the initiation of this crackdown was the unnerving high volume of purchases made in cryptocurrency, forcing the market for this currency to move to friendly markets like Singapore. Strict regulations have been created regarding said currencies which have eradicated the use of crypto-currency in China.
The We-chat Accounts
We-chat is a mobile application created by the Chinese company Tencent for purposes of payment, messaging and social media. It is known as China’s ‘super app’ because of its versatility to perform almost everything on mobile phones functions. The platform has over a billion users who have provided their banking account numbers and used the app to order and pay for goods, services, bills, send money to other users. Also, if you have a We-chat account, you can connect it to other accounts such as Visa, Mastercard and so forth. A we-chat account is basically like a digital wallet.
OnAugust 22, China shut down several cryptocurrency news accounts on the We-chat social application and proceeded to ban hotels within Beijing from hosting any events promoting crypto-currencies. Eight cryptocurreny online media outlets, some of which have raised a lot of capital to the tune of millions of dollars, had their official accounts on We-chat blocked.
Why were the Accounts Shut Down?
The Chinese government cited violations against the new regulations created by the top Chinese internet watchdog. Further explanation was given by Tencent, who said that the accounts were shut down permanently because the owners had published information regarding initial coin offering (ICO) and speculative information on crypto-currency. The offenders violated the regulations created by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) who demand that content providers for such social applications as We-chat should comply with public orders and matters of national interest.
Local authorities in Beijing central district of Chaoyang issued a notice that effectively banned hotels, shopping malls and even office buildings from hosting or promoting events that promote matters crypto-currency. The ban was triggered by an event that had been organized by a foreign crypto-currency exchange, yet such activities are restricted in the area.
Companies such as Huobi have acknowledged the shutting down of their official accounts on We-chat and termed it as a targeted action towards industrial media. Most of these Blockchain gain profits from paid content online regarding Blockchain projects and the number of views for this content. They have also been accused of manipulating cryptocurrency content in an attempt to influence prices and promote initial coin offering projects and made prolific fortunes out of it, which is one of the main reasons for the shutdown.
