United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that Mainland China has been tightening up its control of conversations made on the popular mobile chatting app WeChat. One recent example occurred after construction worker Chen posted a message regarding exiled businessman Guo Wengui’s comments on corrupt government officials. Four days later, the police detained him for five days. Another example was former sales person Wang, who used negative names when discussing current Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Chinese leader Chairman Mao on WeChat. Wang ended up being sentenced to 22 months in jail. The Chinese government has been improving its use of technology rapidly. The police have established advanced monitoring of communication channels such as WeChat, using not only sensitive word detection, but sensitive picture detection as well. A massive nationwide setup of video surveillance and facial recognition is also under way.
Source: United Daily News, December 11, 2017
https://udn.com/news/story/7332/2868268