There are a lot of countries where WeChat is used. Apart from China, people of other countries like India, the United States of America, and Taiwan also use WeChat. But there were some security concerns relating WeChat in these countries.
Investigative departments all of the countries were afraid that the fact that private communications were exposed posed a threat to the nations’ security. Users in China have as well expressed fear in the privacy issues of the app, WeChat. Human rights activist, Hu Jia was jailed for three years for sedition. He speculates that the guobao officials, or the internal security bureau, listened to his voicemail messages that were directed to his friends, repeating the words displayed within the voice mail messages to Hu Jia. Chinese authorities have further accused the app for its threat to individual safety.
CCTV, a state run broadcaster, featured a piece in which WeChat was described as an app that allows criminals an easy way in due to its location-reporting features. CCTV gave an example of such accusations through reporting the murder of Xu Xiaohong, a single woman who was murdered by a man she met on WeChat after he attempted to rob her. The location-reporting feature, according to reports, was the reason for the man’s knowing of the victim’s whereabouts.
Authorities within China have linked WeChat to numerous crimes. The city of Hangzhou, for example, has reported over twenty crimes in the span of three months.