Chinese tech giant Tencent’s social media platform WeChat has deleted dozens of LGBT accounts belonging to university students, some of whom allegedly violated online information rules, raising fears of a crackdown on online homosexual content.
Members of several LGBT groups said access to their accounts was blocked late Tuesday and all content deleted.
Homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in China until 2001 when it became legal, but this year a court upheld a university’s description of homosexuality as a “psychological disorder.”
LGBT groups have repeatedly faced censorship, and the Cyberspace Administration of China recently pledged to clean up the internet to protect minors and crackdown on social media deemed a “bad influence.”
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