(Yicai Global) Jan. 11 -- WeChat, Tencent Holdings’ super-app for instant messaging, mobile payments, and more, has blocked users from accessing ByteDance’s short video platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. 

A number of Douyin users told Yicai Global yesterday that they could not directly open or copy any link to the short-video platform. External links to Alibaba Group Holding’s e-commerce platform Taobao were working fine, they added.

To ensure user experience and data security, WeChat has been maintaining strict and standardized management of external link content and is cracking down on special character sets, logos, and codes, as well as passwords that can harass users, it told Yicai Global.

But the response did not clarify why messages forwarded from Douyin could not be copied. A source at Tencent said Taobao’s links can be opened probably because they do not contain garbled characters, as “normal links are fine.”

Douyin has yet to comment on the matter.

In September 2021, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology summoned major internet companies to discuss ways to make it easier for users to share information between platforms. Tencent subsequently said it would look at further linkage with other platforms, bearing in mind “safety as the bottom line.” 

WeChat released an update in November 2021, announcing direct access to external links in peer-to-peer chats and piloting a new function for external e-commerce links in group chats. Back then, links to e-commerce platforms such as Taobao could not be opened, while those to video sites such as Douyin could.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione