Chinese officials cracked down on instant messaging services for smartphones on Tuesday to limit rumors and anti-government sentiments by banning public chat accounts.

The affected services are reported to be mainly public account feeds, similar to Facebook and Twitter updates, featured in smartphone apps. The domestically developed WeChat was listed as one of the services affected.

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WeChat is a free chat application developed by Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd. that has recently gained significant popularity in the region since its release in 2011, with hundreds of thousands of followers to certain feeds.

Included in the now regulated or prohibited services are the ability to post photos and written updates and follow celebrity and corporate feeds. What the ruling Chinese Communist Party is reported to be more concerned about, however, are anti-government feeds of journalists, activists, foreign interests and intellectuals, actions dubbed as "infiltration from hostile forces".

Prior actions taken in March had led to over 40 accounts being removed from WeChat, after being accused of containing subversive political, economic and legal content.

This new crackdown is believed to be the latest step in the recently announced new initiative, an official Internet Security Group, led by president Xi Jinping.

The group was announced last month as an effort to regulate the spread of subversive content, rumors and news reports otherwise suppressed by Chinese authorities.

Official allegations were abounding that unnamed people had been using the online communication channels to "distribute illegal and harmful information", being harmful to public interests.

Also targeted in the social networking restrictions are pornography, terrorism and incitements of violence, civil or otherwise, official news agency Xinhua reports.

This constitutes the first major government action on the mobile phone messaging market, and the timing of which may be indicative of further fear of unrest following the recent escalation in the city of Urumqi during the ongoing Xinjiang conflict.

Observers noted that it is a typical response in times of heightened conflict to crackdown on communication outlets and heighten censorship laws.

Recent new legal interpretations led to several so-called "microbloggers" to be arrested for posting allegedly false information, with the criteria that the posts garnered over 5,000 hits or 500 reposts.

Internet traffic in the country has long been under high scrutiny of Chinese officials with strict guidelines for service providers what content is allowed to be accessed by Chinese users. Pornography was previously a main focus but it appears to be redirected toward perceived enemies of the state once more.

Tencent has yet to comment on the crackdown, nor any of the other affected service providers.

TagsCrackdown, telecommunications, Instant Messaging, Chat, microblogging, Blog