BEIJING: Chinese tech companies have prevented social media users from changing profile pictures and usernames amid heightened security as a key Communist Party conclave opened Wednesday in Beijing.
The move hit users of the ubiquitous Chinese social media platforms WeChat, QQ, Weibo and even Alibaba’s payment platform Alipay, though it appeared only to affect those with accounts registered on the mainland.
“WeChat is undertaking system maintenance. From today until the end of the month, users will temporarily be unable to change their profile picture, nickname and tagline,” the app, run by Internet behemoth Tencent, announced Tuesday.
Chinese authorities have kicked both online and offline security into high gear for the week-long, twice-a-decade party Congress that will reshuffle top leadership positions.
The ban on profile picture updates could be a bid to avoid the kind of defiance seen during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Umbrella Revolution in 2014, when Facebook users changed their profile pictures to yellow ribbons symbolising universal suffrage.
websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and a slew of foreign media have been blocked for years.
In recent weeks the service of messaging app WhatsApp — which provides an end-to-end encryption function unlikely to please censors — was also severely disrupted.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has overseen a clampdown on Internet freedoms since he came to power in 2012, tightening censorship in a country where young people are avid users of social media.
In his opening speech to some 2,300 congress delegates gathered in the cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi said the party should “provide more and better online content and put in place a system for integrated Internet management to ensure a clean cyberspace.”
Complaints about extreme over-crowding in the Beijing metro, subject to extra security checks during the congress, were scrubbed and photos of commuters crammed like sardines were deleted, according to Free Weibo, a website that archives items from social media that have been removed.
China enacted a controversial new cybersecurity law earlier this year.
Platforms must now verify users’ true identity before allowing them to post online, with certain content banned outright, including anything that damages “national honor,” “disturbs economic or social order” or is aimed at “overthrowing the socialist system.”
Last month, Chinese Internet regulators slapped “maximum” fines on Tencent and Baidu, China’s Google-equivalent, for allowing the publication of such banned material.
There was not a single critical comment to be found on Weibo about Xi’s more than three hour-long speech Wednesday.
“The chairman spoke very well and hopes our country can be thriving and prosperous. He will lead the Chinese people to glory,” one user wrote.
Chinese social media block profile pic changes during congress
Chinese social media block profile pic changes during congress
Bondi Beach attack hero says wanted to protect ‘innocent people’
DUBAI: Bondi Beach shooting hero Ahmed Al Ahmed recalled the moment he ran toward one of the attackers and wrenched his shotgun away, saying the only thing he had in mind was to stop the assailant from “killing more innocent people.”
Al-Ahmad’s heroism was widely acclaimed in Australia when he tackled and disarmed gunman Sajid Akram who fired at Jewish people attending a Hanukkah event on December 14, killing 15 people and wounding dozens.
“My target was just to take the gun from him, and to stop him from killing a human being’s life and not killing innocent people,” he told CBS News in an interview on Monday.
“I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry for the lost.”
In footage viewed by millions of people, Al Ahmed was seen ducking between parked cars as the shooting unfolded, then wresting a gun from one of the assailants.
He was shot several times in the shoulder as a result and underwent several rounds of surgery.
“I jumped in his back, hit him and … hold him with my right hand and start to say a word like, you know, to warn him, ‘Drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing’,” Al Ahmed said.
“I don’t want to see people killed in front of me, I don’t want to see blood, I don’t want to hear his gun, I don’t want to see people screaming and begging, asking for help,” Al Ahmed told the television network.
“That’s my soul asked me to do that, and everything in my heart, and my brain, everything just worked, you know, to manage and to save the people’s life,” he said.
EXCLUSIVE: Ahmed al Ahmed, the man hailed as a hero for tackling one of the gunmen behind an antisemitic attack on Australia's Bondi Beach earlier this month, is speaking out in the aftermath of the massacre.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 28, 2025
"I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry still for the lost." pic.twitter.com/gFUfJvv7c6
Al Ahmed was at the beach getting a cup of coffee when the shooting occurred.
He is a father of two who emigrated to Australia from Syria in 2007, and works as a fruit seller.
Local media reported that the Australian government has fast-tracked and granted a number of visas for Al Ahmed’s family following his act of bravery.
“Ahmed has shown the courage and values we want in Australia,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement.
One of the gunmen, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.
His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen, remains in custody on charges including terrorism and 15 murders, as well as committing a “terrorist act” and planting a bomb with intent to harm.
(with AFP)
