WeChat Disciplinary System for IPR Infringement

Recently, the WeChat, the largest standalone messaging app developed by Tencent in China, announced its disciplinary system due to a series of IPR infringement such as plagiarism on its public platforms. According to this system, users can report the infringement cases, and the punishment will be arranged depending on the infringement frequency. The first time infringement will lead to warning and article removal, while when the infringement is up to five times, this public account will be banned permanently. Previously, the public platforms of WeChat have launched an “original statement” function temporarily for the certified account of public media to encourage more outstanding original articles.