SHENZHEN-BASED Tencent’s CEO Ma Huateng said Uber’s official account on WeChat has been blocked because the company was using malicious marketing methods, according to donews.com.

    Ma said in a post on his WeChat account that Uber’s official account was shut down because of malicious marketing practices and Uber was trying to avoid the punishment by using other WeChat accounts.

    He said that if an official account’s followers grow to a certain number, the account operator should submit its Internet content provider permit to WeChat or WeChat will be held accountable if something goes wrong.

    Ma said WeChat will treat all official accounts equally and step up restrictions against unfair competition. He added that the official account of Didi, the car-hailing app run by Tencent, has also been punished for malicious marketing several times.

    On Dec. 4, some online posts noted that WeChat had blocked several of Uber’s official accounts permanently, saying that users had complained that the accounts were violating rules and policies.

    WeChat explained that it has intensified punishment against official accounts engaged in malicious marketing, forcing users to share content, and profiteering by collecting user information illegally, leading some accounts to be closed permanently.

    It isn’t the first time that Uber was blocked by WeChat. In August, Uber said its WeChat accounts for Hangzhou and Beijing users had been inaccessible since March. WeChat first said Uber’s accounts were blocked because they violated operating rules, but later it said they were blocked because of an “unstable system.”

    In July, some WeChat users found that they couldn’t access Uber’s official accounts or articles that Uber’s accounts had shared on WeChat. When users reposted these articles in their WeChat Moments, their friends were not able to read the articles. (Zhang Yang)