Can You Get Caught for Sending Sexual Content on WeChat?

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As a chat group admin with dozens, if not hundreds of people in it, it can get difficult and nerve-wracking to manage everything that’s happening in the chat on a daily basis. And as more and more illicit content continues to spread across messaging platforms such as WeChat and QQ, group owners are not held liable for anything shared under their watch.

A Baidu search shows a plethora of users who have reported being convicted of spreading obscene information/content through WeChat groups, sometimes not from their own doing.

Generally speaking, as a member of a group chat, it is illegal to disseminate illegal content such as pornographic information, whether it be for profit or not.

As a group admin, it is possible to be jointly and severally liable for “allowing” a group member to post obscene materials without stopping it.

Here’s an example:

A WeChat group owner was sentenced to six months in prison because pornographic images and videos shared in the group chat he was the admin of.

Luo, a 31-year-old from Dehong in Yunnan province, has a bachelor's degree and is self-employed. He set up his own WeChat group in February 2017.

In December of that year, a WeChat user consulted with Luo who allowed others to publish obscene videos in the group for members to watch. He has changed the WeChat group name several times to evade network regulation.

That WeChat group had 150 members by the time it was seized by authorities. A total of 515 suspected pornographic videos had been published in the WeChat group by March 31, 2018, after remote examination by the civil police.

Luo was detained on criminal charges on May 16, 2018, and arrested on May 30, 2018.

After the court heard that Luo had broken the law by allowing 515 obscene videos to spread within his own group chat, the prosecution office, he pleaded guilty and confessed his crime in court. This may actually play in his favor and serve a lighter punishment according to law.

The first trial sentenced Luo to six months in prison for spreading pornography.

 WeChat groups are not outside the law 

Whoever starts a group is responsible for anything that happens inside this group, and is held liable for it.

In September 2017, the state stipulated that Internet group admins should fulfill the responsibility of group management, regulate group network behaviors and information release in accordance with laws and regulations, user agreements and platform conventions, and build a civilized and orderly network group space.

As the administrator of the group, their responsibility is to maintain order in the group chat and avoid spamming it with illegal information and content. If such things happen, they should report it to WeChat immediately.

Don't send the following messages to your groups:

1. False rumors

2. Anything related to sex, drugs or violence

3. Military information

4. State secret documents

5. Other information that violates relevant laws and regulations

Source: baidu

Editor: Crystal H-AD

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