Chinese social media users must show location

The new regulation began to be tested in mid-April and until now, most of the country’s major social networks have applied, including those with billions of users around the world such as WeChat and Weibo.

The user’s location information will appear in the profile, on each post and in the comments. For example, WeChat shows the province or city for domestic users, or the country name for foreign users. The information is obtained from the device’s IP address and the feature cannot be turned off by the user.

Retrieving from IP also makes the new feature work even when the user turns off GPS. The only foolproof solution is to use a VPN virtual private network, however VPN services are banned in China.

According to SCMP, the platforms say the location display is intended to “prevent people who pretend to be locals and spread rumours”. The new feature was deployed after the social network in China was stirred up by a series of videos and articles talking about the anti-Covid-19 situation in the country, causing large-scale online protests.

“Recently, some domestic and international news has attracted great attention. We have noticed that some pretend to be knowledgeable about the above issues, fabricating and spreading false information, causing harm on the internet. cyberspace,” a WeChat representative said, adding that the policy helps “maintain internet order and suppress rumors”.

Mandatory display of location information is assessed as potentially compromising user privacy. However, many agree that they help prevent “spying”, or reduce wars of words in cyberspace. Currently, social media platforms in China have no information about the impact of this new policy.

Share with The RegisterBryan Tan, representative of the law firm Reed Smith specializing in technology, said that IP address can reveal exact location, so it can be considered as personal data, affecting many behaviors of users, not just misinformation.

Location information also causes many attention-grabbing situations. For example, a post on the Weibo account of billionaire Bill Gates is displayed in Henan province, China. Or Apple CEO Tim Cook was also found to have posted from Shanghai. According to experts, this situation occurs because the accounts of many Western individuals and companies in China are mainly operated by domestic organizations that act as a public relations channel.

Luu Quy