“… to be free she would have to delete WeChat, and she can’t do that. As the coronavirus crisis struck China, her family used it to coordinate food orders during lockdowns. She also needs a local government health code featured on the app to use public transport or enter stores. ‘I want to switch to other chat apps, but there’s no way,’ she said.”

A new story from the New York Times explains in vivid detail the power held by WeChat, an all-encompassing online platform used by Chinese people at home and abroad. Users are subject to intimate surveillance from the government, but the app’s central role in day-to-day life makes it all but impossible to abandon.