I hadn't even thought of this.

What if WeChat was a traditional installer (.msi, .app, .exe, .run) that you download from some sever and which is mirrored all over the place?

Does the same authority apply? Can the government say "it's illegal to have this binary executable?"

Or is this only possible because there's one central repository for these platforms, and the government can simply compel the platform (legal and ethical questions aside) to remove them?