Sydney/Hong Kong (CNN Business) Australia has accused WeChat of taking down Prime Minister Scott Morrison's account and redirecting his followers to a site that claims to provide information for Chinese Australians. The removal of the account was first confirmed Monday by James Paterson, chairman of Australia's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. He said in interviews with Australian media that Morrison's account on the platform had been "taken over and rebranded." "His account's been hacked," Paterson told the radio network 4BC on Monday, adding that Morrison's account on the platform now redirects to one called "Australian Chinese New Life." The vast majority are based in China, analysts say, but it also has users elsewhere, and is popular among the Chinese diasporaMorrison had 76,000 followers on his WeChat account, which he used to communicate with Chinese Australians.

Source: CNN January 24, 2022 21:15 UTC