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China Digital

Cybersecurity Researcher Discovers Unsecured Database with Millions of Chinese Social Media Chat Logs

Victor Gevers says it is his mission to “report vulnerable systems.”

Manya Koetse

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Image by iFeng Games (games.ifeng.com)

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Victor Gevers, a Dutch researcher at the cyber-security NGO GDI Foundation, has discovered that a Chinese database containing 364 million records including personal identity data, images, and chat conversations of PRC citizens, was left open for anyone to see who searched for its IP address.

Some of the information records allegedly come from apps developed by Chinese tech giant Tencent, including WeChat (Weixin), WeChat…

Manya Koetse is a sinologist, writer, and public speaker specializing in China’s social trends, digital culture, and online media ecosystems. She founded What’s on Weibo in 2013 and now runs the Eye on Digital China newsletter. Learn more at manyakoetse.com or follow her on X, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Joey

    March 5, 2019 at 10:45 pm

    Lovely, Dutch researcher working to improve the security of China’s surveillance systems. Too young, too simple, sometimes naive…

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China AI

AI Actress Ad Pulled, Baihaitun Disrupts Shanghai and Cicada Meme Bugs Huawei

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Welcome to China Trend Watch (Week 32–33 | 2026), where I bring you the latest trends, memes, and debates driving conversation across Chinese social media. I’m Manya Koetse, a sinologist specializing in Chinese digital culture.

 


 

🗞️ QUICK SCROLLS

 

📈 Is China’s AI price war over?After a period of offering as much as possible to users at relatively low prices, Chinese AI (LLM) companies are now raising their prices. Last week,…

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China Digital

How Chinese AI Videos Turned Foreigners into Villains

How viral AI videos turn racialized outsiders into threats and violent Chinese heroes into defenders of social order, China’s first nationally broadcast AI drama, and why a newspaper is being sold for 50 times its original price.

Manya Koetse

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Welcome to China Trend Watch (Week 30–33 | 2026), where I bring you the latest trends, memes, and debates driving conversation across Chinese social media. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

 

Over the past few weeks, a noteworthy amount of AI-related news has been trending on Chinese social media, which is reflected in this week’s edition.

Now that AI has entered every corner of media consumption and online life, related discussions seem…

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