Blog written by Tina Yu, Associate Consultant heading the blockchain practice at Influence Matters.
There is no debate that effective PR and marketing communications have a valuable impact to the development of a business project. Other than scrolling down media websites to receive the latest news, Chinese people also enjoy getting to know what’s going on in the blockchain industry and crypto market via WeChat accounts ran by Chinese blockchain and crypto media.
However, less than 24 hours ago, some major blockchain and cryptocurrency media accounts in China have been banned on WeChat (as reported on Coindesk), the most widely used social media platform owned by Tencent. Deepchain, Huobi News, Node Capital-backed Jinse, DPRating and CoinDaily are among those who have been affected.
As a result, none these accounts’ previous content is shown, and these accounts are ordered to be blocked permanently. Nevertheless, aside from Jinse stopping all content updates, the rest of the media websites are still publishing as normal, but some of the media representatives tell us they are scrubbing the site of all ICO related content.
A few hours after the incident, WeChat released an official statement saying that these accounts were suspected of publishing Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and crypto trading “hype” in violation of the service’s “Interim Provisions on the Development of Public Information Services for Instant Messaging Tools” terms. The interim provisions cited by WeChat were recently introduced by the Cyberspace Administration of China on August 7.
In fact, Chinese regulators have long planned to enforce the remediation to the media related to cryptocurrency.
On September 4, 2017, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) issued a sharp statement labelling token sales “illegal and disruptive to economic and financial stability”, while ordered cryptocurrency exchanges to close within a certain term of time. Since then, the Chinese regulators have been keeping high pressure on relevant activities.
Also, back in March, major Chinese state-own media People’s Daily criticized blockchain and cryptocurrency media outlets in China for helping to manipulate the cryptocurrency market.
Indeed, as People’s Daily mentioned, even after the release of last September’s regulation, many blockchain and crypto media outlets disregarded the rule and continued publishing content about ICO and crypto trading information.
Many speculate that the WeChat account ban this time is just a prologue. According to Caixin, a China-based finance news outlet, only parts of blockchain and cryptocurrency media accounts on WeChat have been blocked this time. It’s said that the impact is still going on and some major self-media Apps will be included in the scope of supervision.
It’s notable that those WeChat accounts who have not been banned as well as other blockchain and cryptocurrency media have begun to self-regulate, proactively deleting relevant content which may be suspected of violating the rules.
What should blockchain projects do for China communications after this WeChat ban?
It’s important to note that the ban is on ICO/TGE related content, a fund-raising practice that is banned in China, however, China is still a driving force behind the development and adoption of blockchain technology, and this support is not expected to vanish.
Influence Matters has been advocating sticking to a “China safe” communication strategy when developing their awareness and business in China: No explicit target of crypto-investors, no mention of token, ICO, exchange or token price.
Instead, a blockchain project should focus on introducing the company, technology, solutions, team and partnerships, through thought leadership programs demonstrating the commitment and benefits to advancing China’s business, tech, and digital environments.
Our “China safe” programs, developing insightful content for vertical B2B communities raise awareness in all blockchain, business, tech and finance circles through blockchain and traditional media channels, social media platforms (owned and earned) as well as select event.
