BEIJING (AFP) – Multiple social media accounts belonging to major university LGBTQ rights groups in China have been blocked from the popular WeChat app, prompting fears of targeted censorship and calls Wednesday (July 7) for an online protest.

The WeChat pages of groups, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology Gay Pride and Peking University’s ColorsWorld, had their past posts scrubbed and replaced with a notice stating: “all content has been blocked and the use of the account has been stopped” for violations of unspecified social media regulations.

The brief notices said WeChat had received “relevant complaints” about the pages, while the groups’ account names had been changed to “Unnamed Account” on Tuesday, based on publicly visible account records.

Chinese social media platforms frequently censor content deemed to be politically sensitive or inappropriate, with censors previously targeting LGBTQ related content on video streaming apps and foreign films.

Zhihe Society, a feminist student group at Shanghai’s Fudan University focusing on sexual minorities, confirmed its WeChat official account had been permanently deleted in a statement on another social media platform on Wednesday.

“It’s very clear that there’s no possibility that Zhihe’s original account can be revived in the short term,” the organisation said in a statement on Weibo, without giving details of the reason for the takedown.

Although China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, same-sex marriage is illegal and issues around LGBTQ groups are often sensitive.

Tencent, which owns WeChat, did not immediately respond to AFP’s query on what prompted the account removals.

Multiple WeChat users not affected by the block circulated lists of deleted accounts and called on Wednesday for a digital protest against the deletions, asking readers to change their profile names to “Unnamed account.” Many of these posts were in turn deleted by midday on Wednesday.

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