![]() ![]() There are more than 1.2 million Australians of Chinese descent – 5.6% of the country’s population – and almost 600,000 speak Mandarin at home, according to the country’s 2016 Census. Well-known figures and media outlets can make public posts, but most content is shared behind closed doors – either peer-to-peer, or in WeChat groups which can have up to 500 members. WeChat boasts over 1 billion users worldwide, and has an estimated 3 million users in Australia according to marketing company Bastion China. The winning candidate had an additional weapon in her arsenal: An underground campaign on WeChat. However, WeChat users are able to download a filter to identify possible rumors, and can report groups if they are concerned by the content.ĭuring Australia’s last federal election in 2016, the eastern Melbourne electorate of Chisholm voted Liberal after almost two decades with a Labor MP. WeChat’s parent company Tencent did not respond to CNN’s questions on if it had received a letter from the Labor party, and what it is doing to prevent the spread of misinformation. Labor is so worried about the effect of false posts that it has written to Tencent, WeChat’s Chinese parent company, according to CNN affiliate SBS. Some users have shared a screen shot of a tweet which appears to show Labor leader Bill Shorten – a frontrunner for Prime Minister, according to recent polls – saying: “Immigration of people from the Middle East is the future Australia needs.”īut there’s a problem: The tweet is not from Shorten’s verified account and his campaign told CNN he did not send that tweet. They say it’s a positive step in engaging with a community which doesn’t always consume mainstream media and that has found itself caught in the political crossfire in the past.īut as WeChat increasingly becomes a campaign battleground ahead of Saturday’s election, it’s also become home to misinformation. It’s the first time, social media experts say, that politicians from both of Australia’s main political parties are making a proactive push on WeChat to win over the country’s ethnic Chinese population, which has almost doubled in a decade. As Australia prepares for its election, campaigning is heating up on China’s biggest social messaging platform. ![]()
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