Tencent culls WeChat accounts in China’s latest content clean-up

The icons for Tencent Holdings Ltd. applications WeChat, clockwise from top left, QQ, JOOX, Tencent News and Tencent Video are arranged for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone in an arranged photograph taken in Hong Kong, China, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Tencent is scheduled to release second-quarter earnings figures on Aug 16. Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

Tencent Holdings Ltd plans to rein in content on WeChat by culling the number of public accounts on the platform, responding to the latest in a series of Chinese government clean-ups that’s rattled the Internet sector. 

WeChat is cutting limits on “official accounts” – akin to verified Twitter accounts through which individuals and companies share news and information – to just one per person and two per company, the social media service said on its website Friday. That’s down from five-per-company in the past, a reduction intended to comply with regulations on maintaining “healthy” content.