Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison lost control of his account on the Chinese-owned social media platform WeChat and a lawmaker on Monday accused China’s leaders of political interference.
Morrison’s 76,000 WeChat followers were notified his page had been renamed Australian Chinese new life earlier this month and his photograph had been removed, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. The changes were made without the government’s knowledge, the report said. Morrison’s office declined to comment on the report.
The owner of the Chinese social media platform WeChat insists there is no evidence of any hacking or third-party intrusion of Scott Morrison’s account.
Coalition members have vowed to boycott WeChat in retaliation for the prime minister’s account being taken over and rebranded as Australian Chinese new life” earlier this month.
But WeChat’s owner, Chinese tech giant Tencent, says an ownership dispute is behind the rebranding of Morrison’s account and there is no evidence of any hacking or third-party intrusion.
Based on our information, this appears to be a dispute over account ownership, Tencent said in a statement on Monday.
The account in question was originally registered by a PRC individual and was subsequently transferred to its current operator, a technology services company – and it will be handled in accordance with our platform rules.