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Chinese police arrest over 1,500 for online rumours in campaign targeting influencers, bloggers and live-streamers
- China shuts down 63,000 illegal accounts in crackdown on social media posts with false information about hot issues such as pandemic and disasters
- Top influencer Thurman Maoyibei, whose accounts were shut down over the weekend, is among those caught up in campaign launched late last year
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Xinlu Liangin Beijing
China’s Ministry of Public Security said police around the country have made over 1,500 arrests and solved 10,000 cases since the launch of a campaign targeting online rumours in December.
The ministry has imposed administrative penalties on about 10,700 people and debunked more than 4,200 rumours since it launched the campaign last December, according to a Tuesday report by People’s Daily. The numbers were first released on Saturday on the official WeChat account of the ministry’s cybersecurity office.
The campaign has identified and investigated illegal activities that make money from spreading rumours about hot-button issues. Specifically, the ministry has clamped down on influencers, bloggers and video producers who “stage photos maliciously or fabricate rumours” regarding the pandemic, dangers or disasters.
The latest round focused on social media, live-streaming and short-video platforms, where the ministry shut down 63,000 illegal accounts and cleaned up more than 735,000 posts that contained rumours, according to the WeChat post.
The ministry shared 10 examples of rumour-related cases targeted in the campaign, including the case of top influencer “Thurman Maoyibei”, whose accounts were shut down over the weekend after she fabricated a viral story about a young boy and his schoolbooks.
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