China’s most popular messaging app WeChat has denied storing chat histories of its users. This response follows criticism from Chinese businessman Li Shufu, who accused the Tencent owned messaging platform that it must be watching all its user’s WeChats every day.
All Chinese social media platforms are required to censor public posts deemed illegal by the government.
The influential businessman owns Geely Holdings which in turn owns the Volvo car brand. It is one of China’s largest automobile manufacturers and is one of the few not controlled by the government.
In a post on its social media platform in response to his comments, WeChat said it: “does not store any users’ chat history. That is only stored in users’ mobiles, computers and other terminals”.
“WeChat will not use any content from user chats for big data analysis. Because of WeChat’s technical model that does not store or analyse user chats, the rumour that we are watching your WeChat every day is a pure misunderstanding.”
