North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson has a message for Chinese-owned messaging and payment platform WeChat, which has been used by criminals for money laundering and fentanyl trafficking in the United States.
"You need to show us the exact steps you're going to take to stop this," Jackson said in a video posted to social media on Tuesday.
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Jackson, who is leading a multistate coalition of attorneys general targeting WeChat, said he is giving the platform the next 30 days to provide specific answers about its plans.
What is WeChat?
WeChat is one of the largest messaging platforms in the world with more than 1 billion users across the world. The app offers translation as well for various languages. WeChat is available for Android and Apple devices.
In addition to messaging, you can also use its digital wallet service, Weixin Pay or WeChat Pay, to transfer money to other users. It can be used with international credit cards as well.
What is WeChat accused of?
In a press release, Jackson points to the platform's encrypted messaging and integrated payment for helping to create an environment that "allows traffickers to coordinate to discreetly move millions of dollars from the United States to China, and ultimately back to Mexico, where the majority of fentanyl is produced."
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Jackson's office cited these recent investigations and criminal cases that identified WeChat as a significant facilitator in fentanyl-related money laundering:
- The 2021 conviction of Xizhi Li, who managed an international criminal network using WeChat to coordinate bulk cash transfers between Chinese banks and drug cartels.
- In 2023 Operation Chem Capture, in which eight companies and 12 individuals were indicted for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals, with transactions coordinated through WeChat.
- Collaboration between Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Chinese laundering networks, which regularly use WeChat to facilitate cash pickups, currency swaps, and repatriation of drug proceeds.
- A recent 2024 federal indictment in South Carolina, charging three defendants with using WeChat to communicate in order to launder proceeds from fentanyl sales as part of an international conspiracy.
Is WeChat banned in the U.S.?
No.
In 2020, the U.S. government banned WeChat and TikTok citing national security concerns. The ban was blocked by a federal judge and later dropped in 2021.
There is a ban in North Carolina though for state employees using government-owned devices. Former Gov. Roy Cooper banned state employees from using TikTok and WeChat on government-owned devices in a 2023 executive order.
What makes apps like WeChat a popular place for criminal activity?
"WeChat can be exploited by scammers and predators because it uses encrypted messaging and anonymous accounts," said Kimberly Simon, chief executive officer of Secure Network Administration, a Durham information technology and cybersecurity company. "It makes it difficult for law enforcement to monitor messaging in real time."
Conversations, photos and payment information could be monitored or stored in foreign servers, she said.
Simon warns that "criminal networks can use this to conduct operations without being easily detected."
Being a China-based app, it lacks "U.S. level data privacy standards. It doesn’t have to follow the same privacy protections."
Combined with WeChat's built in payment features, Simon said the app allows "traffickers to send and receive money without going thru heavily monitored banking channels we are used to."
"This gives criminals a safe haven to cross borders without U.S. monitoring tools," Simon said.
Simon said parents should be talking to their children about WeChat.
"Ask your children if they are using WeChat or if their friends are using WeChat and sit down and explain the risks to them that this is a foreign application that is not monitored here," Simon said.