WeChat interface with WeChat moment function at its top. Photo:IC

China's major social media platform, WeChat, announced on Monday in a public notice that it has punished more than 16,000 accounts to a different extent in the past six months as well as shutting down more than 5,000 chat groups on suspicion of resale of illegal merchandise.

According to the notice, WeChat has also blocked some 3,500 links involving promotion of illegal products. 

WeChat said in the notice that it had been receiving users' complaints that some accounts were using the platform to release commercial information for illegal merchandise, which violates the country's Criminal Law. The company vowed to seriously handle and curb such acts. 

To secure and regulate WeChat users' rights and interests, personal WeChat accounts that display or spread information about illegal items in any form will be dealt with according to the extent to which it goes against the platform regulations and users' code of conduct; and if users use WeChat moments, a form of post on the platform, to spread such content, the posts will be removed immediately. 

Those who seriously violate the regulations will face criminal punishment in accordance with the country's laws. 

Illegal merchandise includes drugs and medical equipment and instruments such as birth control pills and vaccines. 

Sales information concerning adult content such as pornographic images, explosives and imitation guns and other destructive weapons are also regarded as illegal merchandise, the notice said.

According to a previous report, WeChat closed 36,556 accounts containing vulgar materials in the first two months this year.