Security News > 2022 > April > Sina Weibo, China's Twitter analog, reveals users' locations and IP addresses

To the surprise of many users, China's largest Twitter-esque microblogging website, Sina Weibo, announced on Thursday that it will publish users' IP addresses and location data in an effort to keep their content honest and nice.

"Conventional thinking is that IP addresses may be considered personal data because they could reveal exact locations," he told The Register by email.

Others sought workarounds and posed question as to what would happen if they denied Weibo location permissions.

A VPN might defeat the location service - but they're mostly illegal in China.

"I feel this initiative not only standardizes civilized speech, but is to prevent foreign forces from provoking various confrontations on the Chinese network, After all, in these special times, China is indeed a thorn in the eyes of too many countries. In reality, a lot of spies have been arrested recently, and cyber spies are more invincible" wrote one Weibo user.

The latter aim was advanced this week, with Douyin - the app known as TikTok outside China - asking users to report posts that criticize China's leaders or economic policies.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/04/29/weibo_location_services_default/