WeChat has said its user numbers in Australia have declined almost 30% in the past three years, amid questions being raised about foreign interference on the app.
Tencent-owned WeChat told a parliamentary committee examining foreign interference on social media that as of July 2023, the communications app favoured by Australia’s Chinese diaspora community had fewer than 500,000 daily active users in Australia. The company told the committee in 2020 that its user base was 690,000.
No reason was given for the decline in user numbers in Australia in the past three years.
The WeChat user numbers came in a set of responses to 53 written questions issued to the company by the chair of the committee, Liberal senator James Paterson.
Many of the same concerns that led to TikTok being banned on Australia government devices have also been raised about WeChat, including links to China and the requirement to hand over data if requested under China’s national security laws. However, there is no blanket ban on the app from government devices at this stage.
Dr Seth Kaplan, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, told the committee in April that WeChat was “basically a narrative machine for the CCP” (Chinese Communist party) and this had flow-on effects for Chinese-language media in Australia.
“Because WeChat is so ubiquitous … it affects everything that’s not on WeChat that involves news and information – and even media that is not directly controlled by the party,” he said.
“It basically means that instead of your democracy being a debate among people who live in the country, there’s an additional voice that plays a large part in the conversation. And that voice is controlled by a foreign government that does not have your best interests at heart.”
WeChat disputed Kaplan’s claims in the response, pointing to a letter in the Wall Street Journal in which the company said Kaplan failed to understand how WeChat worked, and said: “No content is pushed to users, and Tencent exercises no editorial control.”
WeChat argued the laws of China would not apply to WeChat as the company – which is a subsidiary of Tencent – was incorporated in Singapore, and its 150 employees were based there.
WeChat said the Chinese government or party officials could not conduct surveillance activities on the app, and had not received any requests for data under China’s national security law.
“WeChat is a safe and secure platform, operated under Singapore laws, that enables private chat messages between users. Surveillance by any government would violate our stated policies.”
The company also denied censoring content critical of the Chinese government, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and the human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang.
“WeChat will only engage in narrow and selective content moderation to prohibit universally undesirable content such as fraud, nudity, hate speech, spam, violence, threats against the safety of minors, terrorism and other criminal behaviour,” the company said. “Beyond the categories of harmful and unlawful content set forth in these written policies, WeChat does not moderate or restrict content.”
WeChat representatives were repeatedly invited to give evidence before the inquiry but refused, stating that the company has no presence in Australia. Paterson indicated at the time that it was untenable for a company “with such an influence on our diaspora communities to continue to operate with impunity and demonstrated disregard for our government without consequences”.
On Friday, Paterson told Guardian Australia WeChat’s answers were “dismissive non-answers” that were “further evidence for the contempt they have for the Parliament of Australia”.
“They fail to substantively engage with the important questions put to them, instead engaging in blatant spin and corporate talking points,” he said.
“They flatly deny censorship, surveillance and control is exercised on the platform even though this has been repeatedly and convincingly demonstrated by independent researchers and experts.”
He said the committee’s report will propose reforms to address the concerns when it is tabled next week.
