Free Republic

David, a Chinese American doctor who does not want to use his last name for fear of backlash against his relatives still living in China, noticed his posts on WeChat's Moments — akin to a Facebook news feed — were not going through. Undeterred, he kept sharing politically charged articles. Within days, he couldn't send messages to any group chat: "Although I was able to read the other people's messages, when I posted my message, nobody could see it. It was like I wasn't there," he says. David then dialed back his sharing of news articles, limiting his conversations to...

UYANG, China—One night this September, construction supervisor Chen Shouli fired off a joke in a chat group. “Haha,” he typed on his black iPhone 7, followed by an off-color wisecrack about a rumored love triangle involving a celebrity and one of China’s most senior government officials. Four days later, he says, the police telephoned, ordering him in for questioning. “I thought, I haven’t done anything wrong, have I? I’m law-abiding,” recalls Mr. Chen, a wiry 41-year-old. “So I went in. Once I arrived, they wouldn’t let me leave.” Mr. Chen was locked in a cell for five days, he says....

China is targeting popular smartphone-based instant messaging services in a month-long campaign to crack down on the spreading of rumors and what it calls “hostile forces at home and abroad,” the latest move to restrict online freedom of expression. The official Xinhua News Agency said the campaign started Tuesday and the services targeted included WeChat, a service run by TenCent Holdings Ltd, which incorporates social media functions that resemble microblog features and that has surged in popularity the last two years. Users can use such services to send messages to a select group of friends, or can follow public accounts,...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa (religious edict) banning online chatting between unrelated men and women, Iranian media reported on Monday, according to Al Arabiya. Ironically, Khamenei’s ruling came a day after Iran’s Foreign Minister touted his country as a “model for democracy” in the region. “Given the immorality that often applies to this, it is not permitted,” the Supreme Leader responded to a question posted to his website on the issue. The ruling came days after Iranian authorities blocked WeChat, a popular messaging application that enables smart phone users to access online social networks. …