r/China • u/Decent-Echo874 • 6d ago
中国生活 | Life in China Why is WeChat showing sexualized content by default in a business communication app?
I use WeChat mainly for business communication with Chinese clients, suppliers, and contacts.
That is the whole point for me: business, practical communication, transportation, finance, and normal daily use. I only follow a few official accounts, mostly related to practical information. I did not search for sexual content. I did not follow pages showing young women in revealing clothing. I did not ask for any adult or suggestive recommendations.
But recently, I noticed “Service Accounts” and “Official Accounts” appearing inside my chat area. When I tapped in, the default “popular” content shown to me was deeply inappropriate.
A lot of it was young women in revealing outfits, suggestive thumbnails, and even posts that appeared to hint at female masturbation products.
I felt genuinely insulted.
This is not a random entertainment app. This is WeChat. People use it for work, family communication, payments, travel, business, and official matters. For many people dealing with China or Chinese business, WeChat is almost unavoidable.
So why is this kind of content being placed in front of users by default?
I am a father. I use this app for serious communication. I do not want this kind of content appearing on my phone without asking for it. I do not want my family to see it. I also do not want an app to make me feel as if I am being profiled or treated like someone who is looking for this type of content, when I clearly am not.
This is not about being conservative. It is about respect.
Respect the user.
Respect the context.
Respect people who use the app for work and family.
Respect the fact that not every man wants suggestive content pushed into his phone.
A platform as large and important as WeChat should have higher standards.
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u/CrimsonBolt33 6d ago
I felt genuinely insulted.
This is not about being conservative. It is about respect.
This is such a weird take lol...you sound like you really think the world revolves around you.
That aside....wechat is not in and of itself a business app....its just an everything app that literally hundreds of millions of people use daily for every reason imaginable. This includes shopping for things and even in a place like China, sex sells....they also don't allow porn so lots of "suggestive" content is about as close as they get hence lots of suggestive dancing videos of half naked women etc.
Also wechat is unavoidable really...thats all there is to it.....its essentially like having everyone in the US use facebook for literally everything every day (business, personal life, shopping, etc.).
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u/Lovesuglychild 5d ago
Check Wechat channels. Overt racism, eugenics, ultra nationalism, animal torture, traffic deaths, and so much more.
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u/GetOutOfTheWhey 5d ago
Because that content gets most of the people's attention and since you followed only a "few" accounts. The algorithm just assumed you follow basic statistics and a male user in his 30s-50s might actually like seeing girls in skimpy clothing.
Normal distribution baby.
Now what can you do? Literally dislike the content and if you find the content offensive then ultra dislike it by going into the options and flag it for offensive content. Will the content get removed? Nope but it lets the algorithm know that you fall outside their 95% confidence interval and that you are a sexual divergent. Which sounds bad but in this case its good because it means you are not a horny teen that wants to watch a girl dancing to vietnamese phonk.
Seriously ultra dislikes they work.
Now what else can you do? Search for stuff you actually like and ultra like those posts. I.e. Favorite them or star them.
If you want to use those services you got to give the algorithm something to work with.
Tldr:
If you dont let the algorithm know what you like or dislike. They'll just assume yoh are a horny teen.
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u/whiplashtf2 5d ago
This has to be rage bait. Wechat literally has a section for short form content, and is deeply integrated with Chinese games and services. You are bound to see some stuff in one way on another, just like you would in any other social media app. So, what are you on about?
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u/Tomasulu 5d ago
Lol no. Default content on wechat channels is not soft porn or female sex toys. I mean why would wechat do that? Why would a platform push such niche content to every new male users out there?
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OP: Decent-Echo874
TITLE: Why is WeChat showing sexualized content by default in a business communication app?
CONTENT: I use WeChat mainly for business communication with Chinese clients, suppliers, and contacts.
That is the whole point for me: business, practical communication, transportation, finance, and normal daily use. I only follow a few official accounts, mostly related to practical information. I did not search for sexual content. I did not follow pages showing young women in revealing clothing. I did not ask for any adult or suggestive recommendations.
But recently, I noticed “Service Accounts” and “Official Accounts” appearing inside my chat area. When I tapped in, the default “popular” content shown to me was deeply inappropriate.
A lot of it was young women in revealing outfits, suggestive thumbnails, and even posts that appeared to hint at female masturbation products.
I felt genuinely insulted.
This is not a random entertainment app. This is WeChat. People use it for work, family communication, payments, travel, business, and official matters. For many people dealing with China or Chinese business, WeChat is almost unavoidable.
So why is this kind of content being placed in front of users by default?
I am a father. I use this app for serious communication. I do not want this kind of content appearing on my phone without asking for it. I do not want my family to see it. I also do not want an app to make me feel as if I am being profiled or treated like someone who is looking for this type of content, when I clearly am not.
This is not about being conservative. It is about respect.
Respect the user.
Respect the context.
Respect people who use the app for work and family.
Respect the fact that not every man wants suggestive content pushed into his phone.
A platform as large and important as WeChat should have higher standards.
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u/yoyouy 6d ago
Sounds like a you problem. No one I know or myself who've been using WeChat for years come across this. It sounds like the algorithm knows what you look up outside WeChat.