China's major microblogs suspend comment function to "clean up rumors"

English.news.cn 2012-03-31 09:46:55

BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Two major Chinese microblogging sites, weibo.com and t.qq.com, have suspended comment functions after they were punished for allowing rumors to spread.

The t.qq.com, run by Tencent, put up an online announcement Saturday morning that it has decided to suspend comment function from March 31 to April 3 to clean up rumors and other illegal information spread through microbloggings.

The weibo.com operated by Sina also released a announcement Saturday saying it would suspend comment function during the above-mentioned period.

Chinese authorities have closed 16 websites and detained six people responsible for "fabricating or disseminating online rumors".

The State Internet Information Office (SIIO) and Beijing police said Friday that those websites were closed for spreading rumors of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing," which were fabricated by some lawless people recently.

Beijing police also detained six people for allegedly fabricating and spreading the above-mentioned rumors, particularly through microblogging posts, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security.

A spokesman with the SIIO also said with regard to a number of rumors having appeared on weibo.com and t.qq.com, the two popular microblogging sites have been "criticized and punished accordingly" by Internet information administration authorities in Beijing and Guangdong respectively.

Websites closed, six detained for spreading rumors

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities closed 16 websites and detained six people responsible for "fabricating or disseminating online rumors," the State Internet Information Office (SIIO) and Beijing police said Friday.

The websites, including meizhou.net, xn528.com and cndy.com.cn, were closed for spreading rumors of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing," which were fabricated by some lawless people recently, said a spokesman with SIIO. Full story

China shuts down fake police website

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police said in a statement Tuesday they had shut down a fake police service website and arrested four suspects.

The website was named "China Internet supervision and investigation authority" and had the address www.wangjing110.com -- a combination of the Chinese pronunciation of cyber police and the number of the well recognized police hotline. Full story

China deletes 225 pornographic microblog accounts

BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have shut down 225 microblog accounts and punished the owners of 154 websites for spreading lewd content, in the latest effort to cleanse the Internet environment.

Among these sites, some that were set up without official approval have already been closed, and others, which are being operated with a license, were ordered to erase all obscene content, according to a statement released Monday by the State Internet Information Office. Full story

China to launch campaign against online porn

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China will launch a half-year-long special campaign to crack down on the spread of pornographic and vulgar information through the Internet and mobile phones.

The campaign, to be carried out by the country's nine government agencies including the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will run from the start of March till the end of August, according to a statement issued at a working conference on Monday. Full story

Editor: Fang Yang