Anti-smoking groups take fight online

Four GIFs designed to discourage smoking were jointly released on the official Sina Weibo accounts of five anti-tobacco groups recently.

"The GIFs are designed to encourage Tencent to remove the smoking emoji from WeChat," said Xu Jianshu, director of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association, one of the groups.

WeChat is one of China's most influential social media applications. The emoji, which displays a cigar-chomping soldier, is used by netizens to express a feeling of relaxation.