Tech

Weibo: the Chinese social network now forces its users to reveal their location

Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, has just implemented a new intrusive measure towards its users. Indeed, the profile of the latter now necessarily displays their position via their IP address. Although it is impossible to prevent this, many claim to be delighted by this novelty.

weibo

In China, the Internet has a very different face from the one we know in the West. Point of Google, Netflix or YouTube: there, most of the major sites in our country are replaced by local equivalents. Thus, Chinese users join massively on Weibo, a sort of Twitter with 570 million members and to which we owe many leaks on future smartphones and other devices. On the other hand, who says China necessarily says very strict regulations.

Indeed, it is not uncommon today to have echoes of various censorships in place in the Middle Kingdom, as was recently the case with the Friends series which was truncated with scenes referring to the ‘homosexuality. Of course, the Internet is no exception and social networks are strictly monitored. Weibo, therefore, has made a new illustration of it since Tuesday, April 26. From now on, the account of each user reveals their location.

You can no longer hide on Weibo

This is an irreversible change. Impossible to modify parameters to hide this information: it is imposed by the social network. For Chinese residents, the account displays the province, and sometimes even the city of the user. For expatriates, the country from which the account is used appears on the profile. In a press release accompanying the deployment of the feature, Weibo mentions its desire to “reduce bad behavior” on its platform.

Related: China Forces Muslim Citizens to Install Surveillance App

If some protests were heard, it seems that the majority of users are in agreement with this decision. “Especially at a time when the COVID situation is still severe, early disclosure of IP addresses can effectively reduce the appearance of disgusting content from rumor makers”writes user UltraScarry.

Source : Reuters

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