Weibo snuffs out smoking emoji, Tencent urged to follow suit

Speakers: Li Ningjing, Sam Duckett and Lu Sirui

[Photo: Baidu.com]

Beijing Tobacco Control Association has urged Internet giant Tencent to remove smoking emojis from its popular software after microblogging site Sina Weibo first snuffed out the cigarette carrying symbol.

At the suggestion of users, Weibo withdrew the image of a smiling, cool smoker with dark glasses from its emoji package on Wednesday on both the PC and mobile-version of Weibo.

The association also called on Tencent, to make similar moves on social networking app WeChat and instant messaging software QQ. 

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.