China’s mega-app, WeChat, is in trouble after failing to appear in an Australian court.

Australia is one of the few countries that has recognized the danger of the app in their country and is following the lead of other nations like India and Taiwan that have already banned the Chinese app in their nations.

In Australia, the authorities have accused WeChat of being a tool for the Chinese Communist Party which presents a clear danger for its citizens. Chinese executives were asked to appear at public Senate hearings as officials debate whether to recommend banning the Chinese-owned app due to foreign interference concerns.

TikTok, Google, Twitter, Meta and LinkedIn executives have all prepared to appear before the Senate as requested, to face the hearings. WeChat is the only company refusing to appear.

WeChat is the world’s first super app. It is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media, mobile payment, map, reservation maker, taxi caller – it literally does everything.

If you have any connection with China at all, you most likely have WeChat on your phone. It was first released in 2011 and since then has became one of the world’s largest standalone mobile apps, with over 1 billion monthly active users and about one million in Australia. WeChat has been described as China’s “app for everything” and a “super app” because of its wide range of functions.

Due to its popularity, user activity on WeChat is used for mass surveillance in China.

Church members in China have been tracked, monitored and arrested because of their Christian activities on WeChat. If you have it, the information on your phone is available to the Chinese government.

For security reasons, it is an app that BTJ recommends not to download.