Sep 23, 2026 · 16 min · 8 segments
In this episode, we dive into the unsettling reality of a mock U.S. AI attack on WeChat that could have breached millions of accounts in mere hours. What does this mean for the 1.4 billion users who…
WeChat, which boasts most of China's 1.4 billion population as users and has really become an indispensable part of their daily lives, so much so that it's been likened to a telecoms carrier in its own right.
Their tool, which they called WeWorm, can hijack a WeChat user's account, call their contacts, and then spread from phone to phone without anyone ever even answering a call.
sound too reassuring for me, you, or any of the other hundreds of millions of people with WeChat accounts.
One is this comes from the U.S., which usually, you know, the shoe is on the other foot.
The U.S. accuses hackers from China to get into all kinds of places, digital places in the U.S., And secondly, because, as you rightly mentioned, I mean, this is like, you know, the nexus of communication for a billion, 400 million people in China.
But immediately think about potential consequences in terms of inciting social instability or whatever, if you can actually control.
that means of communication like that and reach such a big audience, disinformation, misinformation, all of these things.
So I'm sure that Beijing is looking very hard into this and working very hard to try and find a way to avoid that in the future.
WeChat, which boasts most of China's 1.4 billion population as users and has really become an indispensable part of their daily lives, so much so that it's been likened to a telecoms carrier in its own right.
Their tool, which they called WeWorm, can hijack a WeChat user's account, call their contacts, and then spread from phone to phone without anyone ever even answering a call.
sound too reassuring for me, you, or any of the other hundreds of millions of people with WeChat accounts.
One is this comes from the U.S., which usually, you know, the shoe is on the other foot.
The U.S. accuses hackers from China to get into all kinds of places, digital places in the U.S., And secondly, because, as you rightly mentioned, I mean, this is like, you know, the nexus of communication for a billion, 400 million people in China.
But immediately think about potential consequences in terms of inciting social instability or whatever, if you can actually control.
that means of communication like that and reach such a big audience, disinformation, misinformation, all of these things.
So I'm sure that Beijing is looking very hard into this and working very hard to try and find a way to avoid that in the future.
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