Update | WeChat angers China officials for flying virtual American flags on Martin Luther King Day
A new WeChat feature showing a cascade of US flags, apparently commemorating Martin Luther King Day in the United States, has provoked the ire of Communist Party authorities.
Chinese mobile users were surprised to see icons of the Star-Spangled Banner "rain down" their app screen whenever they typed the words “civil rights” in conversations with friends.
WeChat, developed and operated by internet giant Tencent, apologised on Monday, saying the feature was only supposed to be available to US users, but technical errors resulted in it being available to Chinese users.
"Due to some backstage setting errors, it has been available to all WeChat users," it said this afternoon. "We apologise for any misunderstandings caused."
The new feature only appeared in the past few days, seemingly to mark the birthday of King, an African-American civil rights activist and Nobel laureate who espoused civil disobedience and led protests against racial discrimination in America.
On social media, Chinese officials earlier slammed the add-on as inappropriate for WeChat to roll out a feature for a US public holiday and not "patriotic" Chinese ones.
