The Chinese company Tencent has used the American cloud hosting company Vultr to censor FreeWeChat around the world. Tencent is a hugely influential Chinese company. At the time of this post, it is the biggest public mainland Chinese company by market capitalization, valued at over US $700 billion. It runs WeChat, an app used by approximately 1.3 billion people, which has been called a “Swiss Army knife app” as it can be used for everything from money transfers and bill payments, to communication, online shopping and even booking taxis. The company also invests significant amounts in companies such as Spotify, Tesla, Snapchat, and Reddit, as well as video games. 

 

However, even with this power it is not immune to the extensive censorship project managed by the mainland Chinese authorities.

 

This summer, via a number of intermediaries, Tencent recruited Vultr, a Florida-based cloud hosting company owned by The Constant Company, into its global effort to censor our FreeWeChat project. After months of behind the scenes negotiations and requests for transparency, on November 28, 2025, with many of our questions still left unanswered, Vultr closed GreatFire's account at Tencent’s request. In doing so, Vultr acted as Tencent’s vehicle to extend Chinese censorship well beyond the borders of China.

 

What is Tencent, WeChat, and FreeWeChat? 

 

FreeWeChat tracks censored and uncensored posts from the public-facing website of WeChat, the Tencent-owned mega app deeply integrated into everyday life in China. GreatFire constantly monitors WeChat for posts that contain certain “sensitive” keywords. When we find these posts, we archive them. We then return to the site at a later date to see if those posts are still live on the website. If they are not, we mark them as “censored” or “user deleted” depending on the error message. Tracking which of the posts are removed and which are allowed to remain helps shed light on the workings of the censorship regime. Millions of people based in China have accessed the over 45 million WeChat posts that have been archived on FreeWeChat. Over 700,000 of these posts have since been censored on the WeChat platform. We launched FreeWeChat using Vultr’s hosting infrastructure in 2015. 

 

Many of the posts archived on FreeWeChat highlight the shrinking space for freedom of expression in China. They discuss topics that the Chinese authorities deem to be sensitive - a simple scan of our ten year archive of material shows that this list of topics increases by the day. 10 years ago topics like Tibet, Taiwan, and Hong Kong would feature prominently. Today, posts about corruption, the economy, and Xi Jinping are amongst the most popular. Without FreeWeChat, instances of censorship, carried out by companies such as Tencent, would be lost to time, leaving those in China, as well as the rest of the globe unaware of the scale of China’s censorship regime, as well as the topics that fall foul of the authorities. Our archive of posts is used by journalists and scholars to explore for research purposes and to help fill in the gaps created by censorship.

 

Increased Platform Censorship in China

 

In recent years, online platforms in China have faced increased pressure from the authorities to censor information. This is a burden that most companies would rather not bear - with it comes not only enormous financial costs, but increased reputational and personal risk. It does not matter how senior you are in your company or how many people you employ - if you miss censoring just one sensitive post the likelihood that you end up in prison or “disappeared” increases dramatically. China’s Cybersecurity Law explicitly states that platform operators must manage user-posted information and eliminate prohibited content “promptly”. Failure to comply can result in criminal liability.

It comes as no surprise that Tencent would take such extreme measures to try to shut down our website. Who knows what sensitive information we have archived on FreeWeChat that makes Tencent executives nervous? Whatever real or imagined thing it may be, the company used its enormous power to force Vultr to remove our website from their hosting platform.

 

Tencent Comes for FreeWeChat

 

Tencent engaged Singapore-based Group IB to send a letter to our hosting service Vultr on June 12th asserting legal-sounding claims, without citing any activity on FreeWeChat that actually violates any laws:

 

Hello,

 

Group-IB has detected a fraudulent resource deceiving WeChat, branch of
Tencent (tencent.com) whom we represent on behalf of our Cooperation with
Gandi Corporate Service (Gandi.net)

 

*https://freewechat.com/ *

 

This website is, first of all, using the official trademark and wording of
Wechat (https://branddb.wipo.int/en/similarname/brand/BR500000840452420)
without authorisation and therefore proceeds to an intellectual property
infringement.

 

Furthermore, this website is also displaying articles which are
censored/blocked by WeChat official channels and features an APP download
QR code in order to access more "banned" WeChat content.

 

In view of clear illegal and unauthorised activities, we ask you to please
suspend the domain name of this website.

 

What is most interesting about this claim is that Tencent (via Group IB) is clearly admitting that they censor content on WeChat. That’s not usually the language Chinese companies use to describe or to justify censorship, largely because they do not want to run afoul of the authorities. 

 

Vultr suspended our server and requested a response from us to the allegations.  We responded promptly, raising both process (did Vultr have any evidence that Group IB was actually an authorized agent of Tencent?) and substantive (our use of the name WeChat on a website tracking censorship on WeChat does not infringe on those marks) concerns.  

 

Tencent Escalates its Rhetoric

 

Tencent/Group IB responded to these concerns with an even longer list of allegations, many of which mischaracterized FreeWeChat, the law, or both:

 

Dear Support,

 

We would would like still like to insist on our complaint for the following reason:

 

1. the use of the term WeChat and its logo (even slightly modified) is unauthorized as this trademark is rightfully protected here: https://branddb.wipo.int/en/similarname/brand/BR500000840452420 By logo and Wording, besides this shared US law, this website is not an "informative website" about WeChat but indeed a website sharing content removed/censored previously by wechat. Therefore, as this content used to be displayed on WeChat website, this website is clearly acting as "WeChat" bis promoting
content forbidden by the platform.

 

2. The owner of the website claims that : " [they] *do not host or distribute any Tencent/WeChat binaries, nor do [they] encourage users to circumvent Tencent’s official channels*." However, by sharing content previously removed/forbidden from WeChat using their brandname and logo, *they do circumvent Tencent’s official channels and host or distribute any Tencent/WeChat binaries*.

 

We claim our request on behalf of the following laws:

 

- *Trademark Infringement (Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.)* (*Likelihood of confusion. Courts consider whether an average consumer might believe the infringing site is affiliated with, endorsed by, or originating from the original site.*)
- *Copyright Infringement (17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq.) (**The website republishes original written images and videos from the original site*)
- *Cybersquatting (Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)) *(*site uses a similar domain name in bad faith*)
- *Unfair Competition *(*U.S. common law protects against businesses copying the look and identity of another in a deceptive way, in this case reusing content which are not available on the original platform anymore* )

 

In view of the above, we please kindly ask you to consider our takedown request again.

 

Best regards

 

Vultr Makes No Attempt to Investigate or Protect its Customer from Baseless Claims

 

In collaboration with Index on Censorship, we devoted resources to developing an extensive, claim-by-claim response to these new allegations. GreatFire sent this response to Vultr on June 27.  It contained enough information to allow even a cursory review by Vultr to conclude that the allegations against FreeWeChat were unfounded.

 

Unfortunately, Vultr’s response was to keep the FreeWeChat server offline while making no attempts to resolve the matter. On July 31 - over a month after our second response - Index on Censorship sent Vultr a letter co-signed by 17 human rights, free expression, press freedom, and digital rights organizations, reiterating concerns that Tencent was weaponizing Vultr’s trust and safety process against public interest actors. The letter also broke down each claim presented by Group IB to identify the necessary process Vultr could have carried out to determine whether FreeWeChat violated any of the provisions included in the complaint. To date, it appears unclear whether Vultr undertook any steps to ascertain the veracity of these allegations.

 

In early August Vultr’s outside counsel informed Index on Censorship that they would not discuss the matter with Index. However, they did assure Index on Censorship that Vultr was “committed to resolving all disputes, including this one, in an efficient and equitable manner.” When GreatFire followed up and posed the same questions to the outside counsel directly, they did not respond. 

 

Servers Remain Offline

 

Over the course of August, GreatFire made multiple additional attempts to request information from Vultr and Vultr’s lawyers, never receiving a substantive response. While Vultr confirmed they were reviewing the decision to remove FreeWeChat from their servers, they offered no information as to the timeline or nature of the review, or whether it was a technical or legal review. Every request we sent asking for such information was ignored.

 

You may have noticed that freewechat.com is still live. That is because we have moved FreeWeChat to a second hosting provider. They have not removed FreeWeChat for the time being. We have received no similar communication from our second provider and we are not sure if they have been contacted by Tencent / Group-IB. 

 

After acting in good faith to resolve this matter with Vultr and getting nowhere we decided to seek our own legal help. We have graciously received support from the Technology Law & Policy Clinic at the New York University School of Law. The supervising attorney at the Clinic wrote to Vultr’s external legal counsel on November 14, 2025.  On the 20th, Vultr’s counsel responded that “I do not have a substantive update to discuss with you at this time. However, we expect that your client will be informed of Vultr’s decision with respect to the account in the near future.” 

 

On November 28, 2025 Vultr provided us with “a formal 30-day notification of termination of services without cause pursuant to Section 9 of the Terms of Service”.

 

What Now? 

 

We are publishing this post for a number of reasons:

 

We want to share what events transpired which led to the censorship of FreeWeChat and publicly identify Vultr and the actors which made this possible.
 

We don't want this to happen again to our projects. It's difficult enough for us to fight the Chinese censorship apparatus. 

 

Even though we have come out on the losing end of this dispute, we hope that by sharing our story, we will dissuade other bad actors from taking a similar approach in the future. 

 

We don't want this to happen to others. We hope that our story will provide lessons learned for other organizations that publish information that is deemed to be sensitive by the Chinese authorities.

 

We want to encourage other platforms and hosting providers to stand with their customers and against censorship.

 

In the meantime, you can help us in the following ways:

 

Please share and amplify this blog post.

 

If you are a current Vultr customer, please consider moving your custom to a new hosting provider, mentioning our situation as the reason why you are moving.

 

Please write to and/or call Vultr and its legal team to directly to show your support for FreeWeChat:

 

David Aninowsky, Founder and Executive Chairman, The Constant Company / Vultr https://www.constant.com/company/contact/

 

JJ Kardwell, Chief Executive Office, The Constant Company / Vultr https://www.vultr.com/company/contact/

 

Timeline

 

Vultr suspended our FreeWeChat server on June 19, 2025. Since that time, we have tried to resolve this dispute in an efficient and equitable manner but we have had minimal response from the company. 

 

As far as we understand, this is the chain of events which led to Vultr suspending our FreeWeChat server on their service:

 

January 15, 2025: Paris-based Gandi (https://www.gandi.net/en-US/about-us) gives power of attorney (POA) to Group IB (https://www.group-ib.com/team/). This POA expired on July 15, 2025. (Please note that FreeWeChat / GreatFire is not mentioned specifically in this POA and that this POA might be a general agreement which covers other things.)

 

June 12, 2025: Tencent Holdings (based in Hong Kong, owner of WeChat) gives POA to Gandi. This POA is valid for one year (until June 12, 2026). (Again, FreeWeChat / GreatFire is not mentioned specifically in this POA.)

 

June 12, 2025: Group IB contacts CloudFlare about FreeWeChat as we use CloudFlare to protect all of GreatFire’s websites. CloudFlare forwards Group IB’s complaint to Vultr.

 

June 13, 2025: Vultr forwards the communication from CloudFlare to GreatFire.

 

June 16, 2025: As the result of objections raised by Tencent’s agents, Vultr notified GreatFire that it had powered down the servers used as part of hosting FreeWeChat. 

 

June 17, 2025: Group IB contacts Vultr about FreeWeChat.

 

June 19, 2025: As the result of objections raised by Tencent’s agents, Vultr notified GreatFire that it had suspended the servers used as part of hosting FreeWeChat. 

 

June 20, 2025: GreatFire provided the first in a series of substantive responses to Tencent’s claims. That response detailed FreeWeChat’s important role in documenting censorship on WeChat, and the care with which the site has been constructed to make clear that there is no formal relationship between WeChat and FreeWeChat.  

 

June 23, 2025: Group-IB responded to GreatFire’s claims and insisted that FreeWeChat be taken down.

 

June 27, 2025: GreatFire responded again to Vultr laying out our position and addressing every point raised by Group-IB. We provided a detailed response to Tencent’s objections, including separate trademark, copyright, cybersquatting, and constitutional responses. Our reply also identified a number of procedural concerns with Tencent’s claims, including the fact that those claims failed to specify the marks allegedly infringed or which elements of FreeWeChat infringed on those elements. In the days and weeks that followed, Tencent failed to provide any additional information that would allow either Vultr or GreatFire to evaluate its claims with specificity.  

 

June 27, 2025: Vultr responded to us on the same day with the following message: “Vultr reserves the right to request content removal at its sole discretion.” Vultr continued to move to permanently deactivate the servers affiliated with FreeWeChat. 

 

July 31, 2025: Index on Censorship sent Vultr a letter co-signed by 17 human rights, free expression, press freedom, and digital rights organizations, reiterating concerns that Tencent was weaponizing Vultr’s trust and safety process against public interest actors (see attached document).

 

August 11, 2025: GreatFire received a response from Vultr's external lawyer. He declined to discuss this matter with representatives of Index on Censorship, citing client confidentiality and a policy against discussing investigations with third parties. However, the lawyer did indicate that Vultr remained “committed to resolving all disputes, including this one, in an efficient and equitable manner.”  

 

August 14, 2025: A GreatFire representative sent a response to the lawyer asking for answers to our letter but have received no response. In this letter we asked a number of specific questions designed to understand the state of the investigation, clarify how Vultr understood specific aspects of Tencent’s claims, and ultimately facilitate our ability to resolve the dispute in an efficient and equitable manner. 

 

August 20, 2025: GreatFire sent a follow up email / reminder to the lawyer asking for a response but did not receive one.

 

August 22, 2025: GreatFire received the following message via the Vultr customer support panel:

Hello, Please refrain from reinstating freewechat.com while we continue to review this matter internally. We will reach out to you with an update shortly. Thank you for your patience, --Vultr Trust & Safety--

 

August 29, 2025: GreatFire sent a follow up email to customer support and the lawyer asking for additional information and have received no response. 

 

November 14, 2025: The Technology Law & Policy Clinic at the New York University School of Law sent a letter to Vultr’s outside counsel on GreatFire’s behalf.

 

November 20, 2025: The Technology Law & Policy Clinic at the New York University School of Law sent a follow up email to Vultr’s outside counsel

 

November 20, 2025: Vultr’s outside counsel responds, telling GreatFire to expect a decision “in the near future.” 

 

November 28, 2025: Vultr informs GreatFire that they have “terminated” our services.