CHRISTIANNEWS.COM.- Since the new regulations for the use of the Internet in China came into force on March 1, Christian accounts and groups on WeChat have become the main target of censorship.
Members of the Early Rain Covenant Church, a Chinese house church that has often been the target of religious persecution, have been banned from using the word “Christ” in a group on the WeChat messaging app, ChinaAid reports.
In the group called “How to Read”, church members often recommend books and vote for them using the WeChat voting tool. In one of the recent indications, one of the works listed by the group was “Imitation of Christ”, a devotional book by Thomas of Kempis, published in the 15th century.
However, the vote failed to get past WeChat censorship and featured the following message:
“The word ‘Christ’ you are trying to post violates Internet Information Services rules, including but not limited to the following categories:
– Pornography, gambling and drug abuse;
– Excessive marketing;
– Incitement.
To resolve the issue, the app offered two suggestions: Edit the content or submit it for review.
The group’s administrator, Ran Yunfei, said he had to substitute part of the word “Christ” to get past the censorship.
The WeChat reading group was created five years ago. The participants read one book a month, and at the end of the work, Yunfei sends audio messages to help them better understand the reading.
On February 11, before the new measures took effect, he and many Christians were temporarily banned from posting on WeChat.
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