Australia PM Morrison loses control of WeChat Chinese account as election looms

In December 2020 the Scott Morrison WeChat account was temporarily blocked amid a political dispute between Canberra and Beijing over an image of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal Party lost access to his official WeChat social media account months ago, politicians said on January 24, issuing claims of censorship, while the still-active account being run by an unidentified controller now promotes Chinese life in Australia.

Amid growing diplomatic tensions with China, Australia's two major political parties have used the social media platform, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, to communicate with Australian voters of Chinese ethnicity in tightly fought electorates since 2019.

With a national election due by May, the government would have aimed to use the Morrison account to promote its policies during the Chinese New Year celebrations starting February 1. The Prime Minister's office has made multiple fruitless requests to WeChat to regain access to the account, most recently on January 10, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.