Canada on Monday banned Chinese messaging application WeChat and Russian antivirus program Kaspersky on government-issued mobile devices due to privacy and security risks, but said government information had not been compromised.

Tencent’s WeChat and Kaspersky’s suite of applications have been removed from government-issued mobile devices effective October 30, 2023. Going forward, users of these devices will be blocked from downloading the apps.

WeChat is the super app in China with over 1 billion monthly users, and is a ubiquitous part of daily life in China. You can essentially do everything through WeChat, which is convenient.

However, this convenience comes at a cost. WeChat has monopolized the market to the extent that users have little say in front of the app. Identity verification is mandatory, and the app can suspend accounts at any time. And WeChat has always had the support of the central government, receiving funding, and the government has often restricted or banned competing apps.

  • Wothe
    16•2 years ago

    Canada banning WeChat is a great idea, for the country’s security and privacy. Speak of that, look at what Elon is doing; he keeps trying to turn Twitter into WeChat, and he won’t stop until he makes it true!

    In case you are not familiar with WeChat and the seriousness of its censorship toward users: 👇

    We have to ditch centralized platforms for our own sake! And there are plenty of choices: Mastodon, Misskey, WireMin, Damus. (PS: WireMin is a combination of a private messenger & social media; it’s my favorite for now because I get to join chat groups for anonymous discussions.)

    • deadcream
      13•2 years ago

      Kaspersky is closely tied to Russian government. The dude himself (founder and CEO) has a government position as one of Putin’s advisors or something. Also he believes that anonymity should be purged from the internet, and every user should be personally indentified, enforced by the government. In the name of “security”, of course.