China Shuts Down 100K Fake Social Media Accounts

Facts

• The Chinese government has reportedly ramped up efforts to eliminate fake news and rumors from spreading online, shutting down over 100K accounts over the past month that allegedly mischaracterized news anchors and media agencies.¹
• The regulator — called the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) — stated it had cleared 107K accounts of fake news units and anchors as well as 835K cases of false news content since early April.²
• The CAC said it had noticed frequent disruption in online communication and had received multiple complaints from internet users. It added that several accounts were found to imitate authoritative news outlets in order to mislead the public.³
• According to a statement the CAC posted on its website Monday, fake news stories covered topics including social issues and international affairs.¹
• The CAC said it would support online platforms in protecting the rights and interests of internet users. Its latest crackdown came after it recently vowed to tackle malicious comments that risked damaging the reputation of businesses or businessmen.⁴
• The spread of news on Chinese social media is already heavily controlled. Weibo favors hashtags produced by state media and censors hashtags for topics considered sensitive by the PRC.¹

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²The Economic Times, ³Asia News Network, and ⁴WION.

Narratives

• Pro-China narrative, as provided by Global Times. Misinformation and fake news are hardly a PRC problem alone. On the contrary, more and more countries enact laws to punish disinformation producers. Beijing has taken the lead in cleaning up the misinformation that plagued its internet. Among other measures, China has banned ChatGPT and is thus a leader in this complex and emerging space.
• Anti-China narrative, as provided by IFJ. The ruling Communist party is strengthening its censorship on social media and says it will continue to monitor and remove so-called "unsanctioned" content across social media and traditional news outlets. Beijing's intensified efforts to clean up the internet from false news and rumors are nothing but an attack on free speech and freedom of information. This is a crackdown and persecution of independent and critical journalism.