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 Chinaās leaders of political interference.
Morrisonās 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 governmentās knowledge, the report said. Morrisonās 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 Morrisonās account.
Coalition members have vowed to boycott WeChat in retaliation for the prime ministerās account being taken over and rebranded as Australian Chinese new lifeā earlier this month.
But WeChatās owner, Chinese tech giant Tencent, says an ownership dispute is behind the rebranding of Morrisonās 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 ā and it will be handled in accordance with our platform rules.