Tencent Holdings' WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, has denied storing users' chat histories. A top Chinese businessman was quoted in the media as saying he believed Tencent was monitoring everyone's account. The company responded and issued a statement saying, "WeChat does not store any user's chat history. WeChat will not use any content from user chats for big data analysis."

According to a report by Amnesty International, Tencent ranked at the bottom of 11 tech firms running the world's most popular messaging apps, for how they use encryption to protect user privacy.

Last September, China's cyber security watchdog announced a new rule making chat group administrators and companies accountable for breaches of content rules.  In the same month, it handed down maximum penalties to tech firms including Tencent, Baidu, and Weibo, for failing to properly censor online content. As of last September, the platform has more than 900 million daily active users, with a year on year increase of 17 percent.