Anti-smoking groups take fight online
Four GIFs designed to discourage smoking were jointly released on the official Sina Weibo accounts of five antitobacco groups recently.
“The GIFs are designed to encourage Tencent to remove the smoking emoji from WeChat,” said Xu Jianshu, director of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association, one of the groups.
WeChat is one of China’s most influential social media applications. The emoji, which displays a cigarchomping soldier, is used by netizens to express a feeling of relaxation.
The four new GIFs simulate the WeChat interface, showing different corresponding text hints in the input box when emojis related to smoking are clicked.
For example, when the smoking commando is hit, a message in the input box says smoking can result in impotence. A reminder calling for a total ban on smoking in indoor public places is shown when the emoji of the no-smoking logo is clicked.
In November, Tencent removed the smoking emoji from its QQ mobile instantmessenger app at the suggestion of the association. But the original emoji is still available on the PC version of QQ, as well as WeChat.
“We have contacted Tencent in writing, and it says it supports this change, but it needs time to do so due to technical problems and the company’s managing process,” Xu said.
China Daily contacted Tencent’s public relations department but has yet to receive a response.
“Apart from encouraging Tencent to remove its smoking emoji from WeChat, we also want users to utilize the smoking emoji less, or even never, which would have a positive effect on controlling smoking among teenagers,” Xu said.
WeChat’s monthly active users reached a peak of 908 million in the third quarter of this year, according to Tencent’s financial reports. A 2015 company research report indicated that 45.40 percent of WeChat users were aged between 18 and 25.
On Sept 13, Sina Weibo, another popular social media platform, removed a similar emoji of a smoker from its smartphone apps and PC versions, also at the suggestion of the association.
China is the world’s largest consumer of tobacco. It has set a target to reduce the smoking rate among people age 15 and older to 20 percent by 2030 from the 27.7 percent recorded by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015, according to the Healthy China 2030 blueprint issued by the central authorities in October. He Wei contributed to this story.