CNNIC censors news about their own statement

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? 

 

 

GreatFire today officially launches GreatFireVPN, a fast, secure, and reliable VPN built to withstand the world’s harshest censorship environments. Available now on iOS and Android, with a desktop version in development, GreatFireVPN marks a new chapter in the organization’s mission to fight censorship and protect digital freedom.

 

Building on the success of FreeBrowser, which allowed millions to access blocked sites directly from their phones, GreatFireVPN was created to meet a broader need: protecting all internet traffic, not just browsing. By encrypting every connection on a device, from messaging apps to streaming services, the new VPN ensures users can stay safe, private, and connected where other tools fail.

 

“VPNs are lifelines for millions of people, yet they are increasingly under attack,” said Charlie Smith, Co-Founder of GreatFire. “We built GreatFireVPN to make sure that no matter how hard censors try, people will still have access to information, communication, and community. No firewall can stop us.”

 

Designed with resilience in mind, GreatFireVPN incorporates four distinct circumvention methods, robust fallback strategies to stay online, and over 100 servers worldwide for speed and stability, even in the most restrictive regions. Its split-tunneling feature allows users to decide which apps go through the VPN and which connect directly, while its strict no-registration, no-tracking policy guarantees that no personal data or activity logs are collected. A simple one-click interface makes it accessible to both everyday users and those operating under high-risk conditions.

 

For years, Big Tech has promised openness. But with every new policy, the gates are closing. Google’s latest announcement is not about protecting users. It is about control. By forcing every developer to register and be verified, even for apps distributed outside the Play Store, Google is laying the groundwork for a locked-down ecosystem that will make Android look more and more like Apple’s walled-garden iOS, a model built on restrictions, gatekeeping, and diminished freedoms.

In a blatant attempt to suppress independent documentation of digital repression in China, Tencent has launched legal action to take down GreatFire’s FreeWeChat.com, using trademark infringement claims to mask what is clearly a politically motivated act of censorship.

 

On June 12, 2025, Tencent’s legal representative—cybersecurity firm Group-IB—submitted a takedown complaint to our hosting provider, accusing FreeWeChat of trademark and copyright infringement, cybersquatting, and unfair competition. GreatFire responded in detail, refuting each allegation on both factual and legal grounds. Despite this, the provider complied and removed our service, a troubling indication of how even flimsy legal threats can silence public-interest platforms.

 

FreeWeChat.com is one of GreatFire’s core anti-censorship initiatives. Since 2016, the project has preserved both censored and uncensored public posts from China’s dominant social platform WeChat, providing a rare window into conversations otherwise erased from public view. With over 175,000 unique visitors in the past three months, the site serves researchers, journalists, and Chinese citizens seeking transparency about the topics WeChat's owner, Tencent, suppresses.

 

Now, Tencent, through Group-IB, has demanded the takedown of FreeWeChat, falsely claiming the project infringes on its trademark. They cite the use of the word “WeChat” in our domain, even though FreeWeChat does not use WeChat's logo, claim affiliation, or distribute any modified WeChat software. The claim is thin, but the intent is clear: shut down a watchdog.

 

Recent headlines spotlight the Trump administration’s aggressive trade policies, particularly tariffs. These visible trade barriers are openly debated, transparent, and highly publicized. Yet, tariffs extend beyond physical borders.

 

Apple and Google enforce their own hidden trade restrictions, quietly controlling digital trade and imposing invisible barriers that block American digital products from reaching global markets. These hidden tariffs effectively undercut U.S. businesses, harming innovation and market opportunities abroad.

 

Big Tech’s Hidden Tariffs on App Developers

 

On December 31, 2020, Apple removed over 46,000 apps from its China App Store in a single day without providing any explanation to the media. Reports speculated that the removals were due to the Chinese government's enforcement of game licensing requirements, highlighting examples such as NBA 2K20 and Assassin’s Creed Identity. However, the same reports indicated that games accounted for only about 39,000 of the total removed apps, leaving a notable discrepancy of approximately 7,000 apps unexplained—a fact Apple did not publicly address. Such a sweeping removal wave directly impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller American developers by abruptly cutting off their access to this critical global market.