How To Remove Sina Weibo And Tencent Weibo From iOS
It’s almost impossible for iOS apps to be malicious. When you download and install an app from the App Store, you know it’s not going to install anything extra. iOS apps can’t inject malicious ads nor can they hijack iOS settings. So why, you may ask, are you suddenly seeing ‘Sina Weibo’ and ‘Tencent Weibo’ in the Settings app in iOS? Both Sino Weibo and Tencent Weibo are social networks and they appear in the social networks group in the Settings app. Here’s how you can remove Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo from iOS and where it came from.
We’re going to put you at ease here first; your iOS device is not infected. There is no virus on your system and you didn’t download malicious app. You also did not visit a shady website in Safari. Breath.
Where Did Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo Come From?
Did you recently decide to learn Chinese? In doing so, did you try your hand at typing Chinese and add the keyboard for it? That’s where these two new preferences came from. When you add the Chinese keyboard to your iOS device, these social networks are added to the Settings app.
We promise they are harmless and are not the result of a malicious app.
Remove Sina Weibo And Tencent Weibo From iOS
Removing these two new preferences is pretty easy. All you have to do is remove the Chinese keyboard. Open the Settings app and go to General>Keyboard. Swipe left on the Chinese keyboard and tap Delete. Both social networks will be removed immediately from the Settings app.
Back when iOS integrated social networks, both these social networks were included in the mix. We all recognize Facebook and Twitter but Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo are region specific. This makes them far less known to the average user. Unfortunately, iOS doesn’t look at the region settings for your Apple ID when adding them. Instead it looks at any new languages you might add which creates the confusion. Again, this is not a virus.
This is not because fo the keyboard. This is Apple installing these apps through a backdoor install in order to appease the Chinese government so that Apple can continue to exploit Chinese manufacturing. Both apps serve to monitor your location, key entries, and your IP and mac address of everything on your network.
It blows me away that even when they’re proven to be downloading things without your permission or knowledge and cooperating with the Chinese government to sell your information illegally that people still worship Apple and buy $5,000 computers.
Are you sure this is because of the keyboard? I did not add the Chinese keyboard any time recently but these apps are on my iOS. Tencent is one of the largest companies on the planet and it’s WeChat app is unbelievably popular in China. Weibo is like the Chinese Twitter. I think what you are seeing is the increasing influence of these large Chinese tech companies on American tech culture. Alipay and Wepay are increasingly accepted in the US, and I would expect WeChat to be a household name in the next few years. Apple is simply responding to the massive popularity of these apps and providing them for the large Chinese market share residing in the US.