Curb on rumors snares WeChat user
Print Edition
POLICE in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have detained a man suspected of spreading rumors on WeChat.
The man managed a public account that had published unconfirmed reports of assaults and baby trafficking, police said yesterday.
The man, surnamed Wang, is an employee of an Internet company in the city of Guyuan and the sole operator of the account.
He is to be held in police detention for five days.
The arrest was made after Chinese authorities last week issued a new regulation targeting the country’s 5.8 million public accounts on apps such as WeChat.
Only media organizations and news websites may now use public accounts to release and retweet hard news reports.
Under the order from the State Internet Information Office, new registrants are required to provide their real names, while users who have previously registered accounts will have only limited access to the service until they are able to verify their identities.
More than 800 million people use instant messaging services in China, making more than 20 billion posts every day.
The new rule is part of wider attempts to police cyberspace.
Similar regulations were passed in 2012 for microblogging service Sina Weibo, which now has more than 500 million registered users.
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