Communist Party’s mouthpiece in China slams online rumours as two WeChat bloggers sentenced to prison
- The comments by the Party’s official mouthpiece come amid intensified efforts by Beijing to tighten oversight over online content
People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, has warned content providers that “rumours cannot possess peoples’ minds,” and called upon all “internet participants” not to create rumours or believe in speculation, amid Beijing’s broad drive recently to tighten control over online content.
People’s Daily cited a recent court verdict in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where two WeChat public account bloggers were sentenced to between eight months and one year in prison for crimes involving “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”.
In March, the WeChat bloggers in question posted articles saying that chairman Pan Gang, of Chinese state-owned dairy giant Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, was taken away by the authorities to assist with investigations.
People’s Daily said this was only a rumour, which caused “panic to dairy farmers, Yili staff, Yili’s business partners and investors.”
Weibo, Tencent volunteer to clean up content as China intensifies crackdown
The comments by the Party’s official mouthpiece come amid intensified efforts by Beijing to tighten oversight over online content.
